


She's a Gibbs

by LostGirl13



Category: NCIS
Genre: Abby/Original Character Friendship, Angst, Anxiety, Anxiety Attacks, BAMF Ziva David, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Father Figure Jethro Gibbs, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Mentions of PTSD, Original Female Character/Jethro Gibbs Father-Daughter Relationship, Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Multiple, Parental Ducky Mallard, Parental Jethro Gibbs, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protective Jethro Gibbs, Protective Timothy McGee, Protective Tony DiNozzo, Protective Ziva David, Rape Aftermath, Tony DiNozzo is a good friend, Ziva Is Still Alive, potential ptsd
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-31
Updated: 2019-03-19
Packaged: 2019-06-21 00:46:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 5
Words: 45,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15545880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LostGirl13/pseuds/LostGirl13
Summary: WARNING: this chapter contains panic attacks and references abuse





	1. One

-  **Olivia's POV** -

 

I adjusted the waist of my slacks once more as I waited for the elevator to take me up to the right floor. I looked at my distorted reflection in the metal doors as the ding sounded signaling my floor. I stepped out quickly, my eyes looking around the burnt orange walls before they landed on the group standing around the television screen. I shook myself a little before making my way over to their desks. I gripped the strap of my bag tighter as I walked up behind them, looking at the screen. My eyes flashed over the information and the picture, trying to grab a good look.

 

"But why would he put the money into grave plots? What can he gain from that?" Ziva ran a hand through her hair before gesturing to the screen. I waited to see if either Tony or Tim would offer up an answer, but they seemed just as clueless. 

 

"Um, if you buy plots you always have the option to resale them. It's a great way of hiding money if you need to." I jumped back lightly as the three of them turned around on their toes. 

 

"Who are you?" Ziva offered me a quizzical look as Tony looked me up and down. I felt my face flush as I stammered a little.

 

"Um, I'm I'm -"

 

"Olivia Williams, our new intern." I spun around to find Gibbs standing near his desk, sipping his coffee. The heat spread to the tips of my ears as I stared at the man, the myth, the legend that is Leroy Jethro Gibbs. I couldn't think of anything to say as his face showed no emotion, but his eyes seemed to be trying to look into my brain.

 

"Intern?" Tony's voice was surprised as he moved to his desk. Ziva and Tim went to theirs quickly as well, leaving me in the middle. Gibbs nodded as he moved to sit behind his desk, his eyes finally releasing me from their hold.

 

"Yes, DiNozzo. Intern. McGee!"

 

"Yeah boss?"

 

"Show Ms. Williams where she can put her things. Ziva, dig deeper into Ms. Williams' theory about the burial plots. I want to know everything. We need to find where he's hiding the money so we can close this case." Gibbs grabbed his coffee cup and began to move. Tony's eyes followed him before standing.

 

"What about me, boss? Boss?" Tony was ignored as Gibbs began his ascent up the stairs. My eyes followed him too. I jumped when a hand was placed against my shoulder, bringing me back to the here and now. I turned to find McGee staring at me concerned. 

 

"Are you alright?"

 

"Oh! Yeah, sorry. Is he always like that?" McGee smiled softly as he tugged me along to show me my desk.

 

"Gibbs? Most of the time." I sat my bag down on the desk as I nodded. 

 

"He really is as intense as they say then. . . Okay! What do you need me to do?" I looked at McGee waiting for instructions. He floundered around for a moment before holding up a hand. He went to his desk before coming back to me quickly with a few folders in his hands.

 

"Do you know where autopsy is?" I thought back for a moment before nodding my head. McGee handed me the folders.

 

"Take these down to Dr. Mallard for me. I need to go down to forensics and I was needed there about two minutes ago." I nodded as he began to move.

 

"I've got it. Don't worry." McGee practically ran from me towards the elevator. I released a puff of breath as I made sure I had my ID badge attached to me and pocketed my cell phone. I heard light footsteps behind me. 

 

"Can I help you agent DiNozzo?" I turned around to find him looking at me surprised.

 

"How did you know it was me?" I waved the files in front of me.

 

"I'll explain later. I've got to get these down to Dr. Mallard for agent McGee." I began walking for the elevator and I heard him following me, but I ignored him, concentrating on my task. I pressed the button to wait as he came up beside me.

 

"Do you know where autopsy is?" DiNozzo leaned against the wall next to me, a quizzical look gracing his brow.

 

"I do. They showed my group on a tour." I kept my face passive as the doors dinged and I stepped on. The doors almost closed before DiNozzo followed suit. 

 

"So, what has made you want to become a field agent for NCIS?" 

 

"My father." 

 

"Ah, I take it daddy was an agent?"

 

"How astute of you, agent DiNozzo." I tried to keep an eye roll to myself as DiNozzo grew quiet. I didn't care, if he was going to ask stupid questions he was going to get sarcastic answers with zero apologies. 

 

"I'm simply curious. I'm sure you know that we rarely take on interns, so don't blame me for wanting to know what it is about you that convinced Gibbs to bring you on." DiNozzo's voice grew a little sharp causing me to turn and look up at him, my eyes narrowing. I kept my thoughts to myself though. The elevator dinged and I moved fast to get away from DiNozzo. I walked through the automatic doors of autopsy only to find it empty except the small frame of the female body lying on the table in the middle of the room. I sighed as I made my way over to the desk in the corner of the room and placed the folders down. Luckily, DiNozzo decided to not follow me. Leaning against the desk, I took a moment to simply breathe and look around the room. My eyes landed on the body again. Curious, I began to move closer. I was halfway across the room when I heard an older man speak,

 

"May I help you?" I turned on my toes to find a man lingering in a doorway to a storage room.

 

"Are you Dr. Mallard? I'm Olivia Williams the new intern for agent Gibbs' team. I was sent down with some files, I placed them on your desk." I moved back towards the man, who was gazing at me from behind his glasses. I tucked some of my hair behind my ears as I waited for him to reply.

 

"Ah yes, Ms. Williams. Gibbs did indeed tell me about you. Are these the files here?" He picked them up and began reading through them as I nodded. His eyes didn't stay on them for very long before they were trained on me once more. 

 

"Can I help you with something, Ms. Williams?"

 

"Umm, no." I shook myself before I began to turn away. 

 

"Just a moment, would you like a cup of tea?" I paused and looked back at him, finding him uncovering an old school tea pot. He motioned me over, pushing a chair my way as he took his own seat.

 

"Thank you, Dr. Mallard, but really, I should get back upstairs."

 

"Nonsense, and call me Ducky, please. Mostly everyone does." I sat down across from him slowly as he poured us both tea.

 

"Okay, Ducky it is then, but Gibbs will be angry if I'm not where I'm supposed to be."

 

"Cream? Sugar?"

 

"No thank you." I sighed as I sat there, waiting for Ducky to make his point. I took a sip of my tea to be polite. It was rather good, but black coffee was more my speed. 

 

"I hope you don't mind, but when I learned that we were to gain a new intern I felt it necessary to go over your file. Do forgive me, but with our past track record I'm sure you understand."

 

"I do, I've heard the stories." My mouth was dry as I watched Ducky closely. 

 

"Indeed." I took another sip of my tea before standing. I had to get out of here, I'm sure Dr. Mallard is a lovely man, but talking about me is not a strong suit I possess.

  

"Thank you for the tea, Ducky, but I really should get back upstairs." I turned to find Gibbs standing in the doorway. I gasped softly before clearing my throat. 

 

"Agent Gibbs."

 

"Go grab your bag, Williams. We've got a new body in Norfolk." I nodded and ducked my head, exiting as fast as my feet could carry me. The tips of my ears were burning again as the elevator doors closed behind me. 

 

* * *

- **Gibbs' POV** -

 

"What've you got for me, Duck?"

 

"She's careful, curious, and wants to prove herself, but for the life of me, Jethro I cannot find any James Williams in any of our files. The man doesn't exist in NCIS records as an agent, nor is he in any criminal database." Ducky began to move around autopsy gathering his tool kit. He made a quick call to Palmer before turning back to me.

 

"What are you trying to say?"

 

"Either she is lying or someone has been lying to her, Jethro. If she is lying then I trust you'll find out why. If not then I do not think we should worry about having her around the team. Now go, we've got a body to get to." 

 

* * *

- **Olivia's POV** -

 

I was in the backseat of the car watching the back of Gibb's head. I had to wonder if he was the one that told Ducky to look into my background, and if so why, besides the obvious. I was squished in-between DiNozzo and McGee whereas Ziva was sitting in the front passenger seat, reading over the dossier.

 

"I looked into the burial plot idea that Ms. Williams gave us earlier. She is right, it's a rather clever way of hiding money. Someone can simply buy a plot and after a certain amount of time they could resale the plot, gaining back the money they put into it."

 

Ziva sounded impressed as she finished speaking, but all Gibbs did was nod his head. DiNozzo made a disgruntled noise as he tried to shift his body. I glanced at him out of the corner of my eyes trying not to become annoyed.

 

"Ya know, maybe we should've driven in two cars, boss."  

 

"Uncomfortable DiNozzo?" Gibbs' voice was light, but I could sense that there was a warning behind it.

 

"Not at all, boss." I felt McGee chuckle beside me, however, he didn't let the sound pass over his lips. I hid a smile at that. I guess the stories about them were true. They fought like brothers. We skid to a stop in front of the crime scene and the team didn't hesitate on getting out of the car. Ducky pulled up behind us in the truck. 

 

"Williams, stick with me. DiNozzo start sketching, Ziva photos, McGee statements." I followed behind Gibbs closely as we walked over towards the military officers. 

 

"Special Agent Gibbs and this is Olivia Williams, she is shadowing my team for the time being. What can you tell me?"

 

"Lieutenant Alexander Keane. Your victim is Petty Officer Michelle Greene, she mainly worked in our administrative office here on base. She was quiet, but she was efficient and got her job done. She will be sorely missed, Agent Gibbs." 

 

I looked at Lieutenant Keane, immediately getting a weird feeling about him. Filing this feeling away, I paid more attention to Gibbs.

  

"Do you have any idea what happened?"

 

"Not a clue, sir. Petty Officer Greene rarely misses work and we knew something was wrong when she didn't show up this morning. She was found by fellow Petty Officer Jonathon Freeman."

 

"Is Petty Officer Freeman still on site?"

 

"Yes sir, I believe he's already speaking with one of your agents."

 

"Do you know if Greene had any contact with another Petty Officer by the name of Rachel Harlow?" Gibbs pulled a photo from his notepad and held it up for the Lieutenant to take a good look at. It was the same girl from down in autopsy, I was almost certain. Lieutenant Keane's eyes weren't too keen on looking at the photo for very long, however. I felt Gibbs shift beside me.

 

"Not to my knowledge sir. Like I said, Greene was quiet and she kept to herself the majority of the time, but she was a good Marine, agent Gibbs. I hope you find whoever did this."

 

"Thank you Lieutenant. Stay close in case we have anymore questions." 

 

"Let me know if you need anything." 

 

Lieutenant Keane walked away from us and Gibbs sighed, turning to me. He looked at me for a moment before motioning for me to follow. Man of few words. I mulled over everything Keane told us. I couldn't find anything wrong with the information - or noninformation - he gave us, but that feeling I had upon meeting him crept back to the forefront. We walked over to Ducky, who was just finishing up checking the body temperature.

 

"Time of death?"

 

"It appears that our poor Petty Officer perished around four in the morning." I looked over the body taking in the obvious. Her clothes are disheveled, her pencil skirt ripped along the seam, her shirt missing buttons. Her clothes were dirty and her body clearly wasn't disposed of with any form of care. I bent down to get a closer look at her, my eyes traveling down her arm and to her finger nails. I felt eyes on me and I noticed how quiet it had become. I looked up to find Gibbs and Ducky watching me.

 

"Tell me what you see, Williams." I sighed and bit the inside of my cheek attempting to ignore the heat rising up the back of my neck. 

 

"Well, at first glance I noticed her clothes. They're disheveled, her skirt ripped and her shirt is missing buttons. It's clear to me that the killer didn't care about her body as it looks like she was simply dropped onto the ground like a piece of trash."

 

"What else?"

 

"Ducky, do you have a spare set of gloves?" I looked up to the older man to find him offering me a pair from his pocket. I nodded my thanks, pulling them on with a slight snap. 

 

"Am I allowed to move her?" I held myself back as I waited for Ducky's answer, when the older man nodded I gently lifted her hand.

 

"Her finger nails are broken and it seems as if there is some sort of dirt underneath what is left. It could be from defending herself and possibly trying to escape her attacker." I turned her neck.

 

"Ducky, did you see this? There's something here." I pointed to the place just below her neck where he shoulder begins. It was just a spot, almost between the size of a large needle or an ice pick. Ducky ducked down to my level as he tried to get a better look at what I was talking about.

 

"What do you think it is?" I glanced to his face to get an idea of what he was thinking. He seemed as if he was trying to hide some form of surprise.

 

"I'm not entirely sure, it's definitely a puncture wound, however from what I do not know. We can find out more when we get her back to autopsy. Mr. Palmer prep her for transport, please." I began to slide my gloves off my hands and stood quietly. I felt eyes on me as I watched Ducky move around. 

 

"Williams go shadow McGee as he finishes up the statements." I nodded as I glanced up at Gibbs, but I couldn't get a read on his face. His eyes were doing that x-ray thing again. I hurried to where McGee was standing talking to a few other Petty Officers.

* * *

-  **Gibbs' POV** -

 

"She's quite observant."

 

"Yeah, she is. What can you tell me about our Petty Officer?" 

 

"Ms. Williams was correct about our young victims fingernails. I am surprised she found the puncture wound, it was not the most obvious of finds. It's exactly like the one we found on Petty Officer Harlow as well. I'm afraid I can't tell you much more until I get her back."

 

I took a sip of my coffee and hummed. Ducky stood pulling his gloves off and looked at me. I scanned the scene looking for Williams to make sure she was doing her job. She seemed to be paying attention, but her eyes were shrewd. I tried not to laugh at the hard look on her face. She was definitely something.

 

"What are you thinking, Jethro?"

 

"I'm not sure, Duck. McGee and DiNozzo are going to ride back with you. Ziva, Williams! Let's go!" I walked back to the car and got in waiting for them to catch up.

* * *

-  **Olivia's POV** -

 

I slid into the backseat once more as Ziva slid into the front. Gibbs started the car and began to pull away. He kept his eyes on the road as he asked,  

 

"You got that address, Ziva?"

 

"It's programmed into the GPS. Tony and McGee not coming?"

 

"Nope, they're going to finish up here." It was quiet for a while as we made our way down the road. I trained my eyes out of the window, watching the side of the road pass in a blur. I felt eyes trained on me, but when I looked up to the rearview mirror, Gibbs' eyes were back on the road. I was surprised when Ziva cleared her throat.

 

"Olivia, how are you finding your first day?" I cocked my head to the side.

 

"Ask me later and I might have a good answer for you, Agent David." Ziva smirked a little as she offered me a bottle of water from her backpack. I took it, thanking her.

 

"Forgive me, I am just hoping it's not all bad so far. I've heard your father is what influenced you to become an agent, is that true?"

 

"It is." I wanted to roll my eyes. Is that all that anyone could ask me? 

 

"He must be a good man." Ziva's voice was soft as I took a drink of the water. I paused for a moment, thinking of the best way to approach the subject.  

 

"I'm sure he was. I never knew him, only stories." My own voice was barely audible, but I didn't have a doubt that in the silence of the car Gibbs and Ziva both heard me. Ziva dropped the subject, most likely realizing that I wasn't ready to share with them just yet. I understood why they were curious, but it was difficult to divulge information about myself. I enjoy the quiet.

 

After around ten more minutes we pulled into the driveway of a two story, white house. It seemed almost familiar, but I shook myself as I followed them out of the car. Gibbs knocked on the door loudly. A brunette woman opened the door with a smile on her face. Her smile pained me as I knew what we must be about to do.

 

"Are you Cheryl Greene?"

 

"Yes, can I help you?" Her smile faltered slightly as she looked between the three of us.

 

"I am Special Agent Gibbs, this is Agent David, and our intern Ms. Williams, we're with NCIS. May we come inside and speak with you Mrs. Greene?" Gibbs' voice was soft and he was patient. Mrs. Greene fumbled about, but she opened the door wider and gestured us inside.

 

"What can I do for NCIS, Agent Gibbs?" She sat in her chair as we took seats on her floral print couch. I glanced around the room, making some observations. Naturally, there were a lot of photos of Petty Officer Greene, but mostly of her from when she was younger.

 

"Mrs. Greene, we found your daughter this morning on the base at Norfolk -"

 

"Is Michelle alright? Was she hurt?" Mrs. Greene cut Gibbs off, panic rising in her voice. The woman's eyes were wide and her hands were gripping her knees tightly. 

 

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Greene." A look of fear and recognition dawned upon the woman's face as she covered her mouth with her hand.

 

"She she - Michelle is dead? No. You must be mistaken. She was supposed to be safer staying on base." She was shaking her head vigorously and it made my heart wrench. 

 

"There is no mistake, Mrs. Greene. We are very sorry for your loss. Would you like us to call someone to come stay with you? Is there anything we can currently do?" Gibbs got right down to business, but his voice was still calm and soft. Mrs. Greene stared off into space, her mouth slack yet her jaw held tension. She was quiet, but Gibbs' patiently waited. She stood abruptly.

 

"Thank you, Agent Gibbs, but the only thing you can possibly do for me now is to find who did this. Michelle was all I had left and now someone has taken her from me." Gibbs stood as well before placing a gentle hand on Mrs. Greene's shoulder.

 

"We will do everything we can. Here's my card, call if you need anything - I mean, anything. Day or night." She took his card with a tight look upon her face.

 

"I do have a friend, who can come stay with me. I can call her." Gibbs nodded as she began to lead us to the door. Once we were outside, Gibbs paused.

 

"We'll find who did this, Mrs. Greene." There was a look in Gibbs' eyes as if it almost pained him to make this promise. I noticed Ziva's eyes trained on Gibbs as well, but she held her emotions back with far superior training than I could ever hope for. Maybe she could train me. I turned my attention back to the woman as she spoke again,

 

"Did you serve, Agent Gibbs?"

 

"Yes ma'am, United States Marine Corps." I tried to hide my surprise at his words. I had heard stories, but you could never know for sure with all of the gossip.

 

"I thought so, you remind me of my late husband. I'm trusting you, Agent Gibbs." There were tears in her eyes as she nodded and closed the door. 

 

As we returned to the car, Gibbs was even more quiet than what I guessed was normal. Ziva was glancing over at him, waiting for something.

 

"Ziva, when we get back I want you to find everything you can about Petty Officer Greene's last few days. Paper trails, who she was in contact with, anything."

 

"Will do. Shall I have Olivia accompany me?" Gibbs shook his head as I tuned into the conversation.

 

"No, she's going to continue to shadow me, but be prepared for the extra hands if I send her your way." I tried not to become annoyed at the fact that they were talking as if I wasn't there. 

 

When we made it back to our floor at NCIS, Ziva automatically went to her desk and began working. I followed Gibbs as he went for his desk. Tony looked up as I placed my bag down at my assigned desk and Gibbs checked for any potential messages at his own.

 

"Ducky is looking for you."

 

"I know, I'm on my way down. You and McGee follow up on that Petty Officer Freeman." 

 

"On it." 

 

I followed Gibbs over to the elevator, wishing I knew what to say to the man, but I felt like I should only speak when spoken to. When we got into the elevator and began going down Gibbs reached over and stopped it. He turned to me as he leaned against the wall with his arms folding over his chest. I stared back at him, waiting for him to say what was on his mind. His blue eyes narrowed slightly as he looked at me from my head to my toes. I twisted my fingers together behind my back when he finally spoke,

 

"You've been awfully quiet today. Something wrong?" 

 

"I haven't known what to say, sir. I'm just trying to do my best at shadowing the team and learning as much as I can. I'm trying not to cause any problems amongst the team."

 

"You had no issue offering input this morning when you arrived. What changed?" I took a deep breath as my stance shifted. I sucked in a deep breath, my annoyance finally getting the better of me.

 

"Forgive me, but so far since I have been here I've had DiNozzo accost me outside the elevator before I took files down to Ducky and then Ducky tells me that he has looked into my background. I understand there is a lot of concern at having me here. I've heard stories about the interns that have done horrible things to your team. If you want to know things about me Agent Gibbs maybe you should try asking me what you want to know. Trust goes both ways, sir." I stared up at him, my eyes never wavering from his. He glanced at his watch before switching the elevator back on.

 

"We'll finish this later, Ducky's waiting." He turned towards the doors so I did the same. When the doors opened we found Ducky standing there, pressing the button.

 

"Oh Jethro! There you are, I was on my way to come find you."

 

"What've you got Duck?"

 

"Nothing good, I'm afraid. I found bruising along the insides of her thighs as well as what appear to be finger tip shaped bruises on her hips. I ventured a closer look at the puncture wound and I found an identical one in the same spot on the opposite side. I'm still not quite sure what these are at the moment. I also double checked out first victim's body to see if there were two markings on her as well, however, there was only the one. I'm wondering if this isn't some form of counting system or signature." 

 

I stepped closer to the body bending down to get a closer look at the puncture. I stood straight and turned to Ducky. 

 

"Finger tip sized bruises. Do you think she was raped, Ducky?" I couldn't hold myself back from asking my question. I tried to keep my voice calm and my face straight.

 

"I'm afraid so, Olivia. I found some remaining fluids and I'm having Abby run some tests in hopes of getting a DNA match."

 

I felt Gibbs' eyes on me as I move back around to look at her hands. For some reason, I kept coming back to her hands. 

 

"This is most likely a silly question, but did you find any blood that wasn't hers underneath her fingernails?" Ducky offered a small smile. He seemed to be trying to be patient with me.

 

"Abby is also running those tests. Is there something troubling you?"

 

"My gut is giving me a strange feeling that's bringing me back to her hands. I'm not sure what it is." I stood up and found both men staring at me. Ducky was sending quick glances between Gibbs and I. I took a few steps back, falling quiet again, afraid that I've overstepped my boundaries. Gibbs gazed at me, watching me withdraw, giving none of his thoughts away. I let my light brown hair fall over my eyes a little as he turned away from me.

 

"Did you find anything else?"

 

"I found an irritation around and on the inside of her nostrils. I swabbed and sent that to Abby as well. I'm afraid other than that that's all I have for you, Jethro."

 

"Thanks Ducky, let me know if you find anything else." Gibbs turned to leave and I waved goodbye before chasing after him. I remembered him questioning why I wasn't speaking so once we were back in the elevator I took a chance.

 

"Where are we going now?"

 

"Abby's lab." 

 

"Oh. I haven't met Abby yet." I watched Gibbs' face as it looked as if he was trying to hide a smile. I frowned unsure as to why this would be funny. I adjusted my shirt sleeves just as we came to the right floor. I heard some kind of music coming out of the door across the hall from the elevator. I glanced at him as I followed behind him, my body semi hidden behind his.

 

"Gibbs! Why are you here? I don't have anything for you yet!" The music grew quieter as she kept rambling on to Gibbs. I took a moment to look around the lab until I realized that it had gotten extremely quiet. I turned to find Abby staring at me. I tried to offer her a small smile, but she was still frowning.

 

"I thought we had decided no more interns." I frowned as she spoke. I took a long look at her, taking all that was Abby into my brain. I liked her style and the tattoos that I could see were pretty cool. I had a few of my own, but they were all completely hidden. Before Gibbs could say anything I plastered on another smile.

 

"I like your shoes." Abby's eyebrows shot up into her bangs as she floundered around for a minute.

 

"Uh, thanks." I quickly seized the opportunity to introduce myself. I held out my hand to her.

 

"I'm Olivia Williams. Your lab set up is pretty sweet."

 

"Oh, I'm Abby Scuito. Yeah, are you into forensics?" She took my hand cautiously, but it was a step forward I suppose.

 

"I took a few classes, but field work is where my heart lives." Abby started to relax as she picked up one of the largest cups of caf-pow that I've seen. I stepped a little closer to her computers to grab a look at what she had up. The screen had security cam footage paused.

 

"Is this from on base?

 

"Oh yeah, I was watching it while waiting for Major Maspec to tell me what was under our Petty Officer Greene's fingernails and to determine exactly what those bodily fluids are. I haven't seen our Petty Officer appear yet however, but it could be that she was simply dumped there." Abby gave me a strange look before she glanced over to Gibbs. Abby tilted her head slightly, looking almost like a puppy.

 

"Let me know if you find anything Abs." Gibbs kissed Abby's cheek before heading for the door. I tried to hold in my shock at the closeness they shared, I just hope my face cooperated.

 

"Have someone find me if you feel like you need an extra pair of eyes, Abby. It was nice to meet you!" I ran out the door and rushed into the elevator with Gibbs before the doors closed. Gibbs glanced at me before he pressed a button, the slightest smirk ghosting the corners of his mouth. When we got back to our desks, McGee popped his head up from what he was doing.

 

"What've ya got McGee?"

 

"I've learned something interesting about Jonathon Freeman, boss. It turns out he was quite infatuated with Michelle Greene. She filed several complaints to Lieutenant Keane, but it doesn't seem as if there was any action taken against Freeman." I felt my stomach clench, I knew there was something weird about the Lieutenant. I guess this was it.

 

Gibbs' jaw became tight before he said, "Take Tony and go get him."

 

I watched McGee and Tony grab their guns and badges before they headed for the elevator. My attention was drawn to Ziva as she stood from her chair coming over to the plasma.

 

"Michelle Greene, aged twenty-three, led a rather quiet life, Gibbs. It seems as if she rarely went out and she had a set routine. She followed the same route to and from base every day. It looks as if this girl has never cooked a day in her life. Showed up to work early, left late. She was in line for a promotion. She has no criminal record, save a speeding ticket from two years ago."

 

"Anything else?"

 

"If she was seeing anyone at all, I have found no record of it. Her social media gives nothing away. It's obvious the girl was careful, Gibbs."

 

I felt myself staring at Greene's picture up on the plasma, unable to stop the words coming from my mouth.

 

"She wasn't careful enough it seems." I turned and found their eyes on me. I didn't say anything more. My mouth was set into a grim line as I stared back. 

 

"Go back to her mother's house and see if you can learn anything. Williams come with me." Ziva nodded, shooting me a look before she grabbed her gun and headed for the elevator. I followed Gibbs into a small break room. 

 

"Sit down." He pointed to a chair in the corner as he grabbed two coffee cups, filling them. He plopped a cup in front of me, and I noticed that he left my coffee black. I took a sip of it waiting for him to speak. When he doesn't, I sighed.

 

"I shouldn't have said what I did. It was harsh, I know."

 

"Are you apologizing?" Gibbs took a long draw from his own cup. His blue eyes piercing mine.

 

"No, I'm not. Before my mother died she told me that one of the few things she learned from my father was to never apologize." 

 

Something passed over Gibbs' face at my words, but I chose to ignore it because it was gone as soon as I noticed it. I looked down into my cup.

 

"Your father sounds like a smart man."

 

"Like I told Ziva in the car, I never really knew him. Mom said he died before I was born, but I don't know if that's true or not considering she never liked me asking about him. She's only told me a few things when I was younger, but as I got older she just - she stopped. Any other questions I had continually got shot down. I've never even seen a picture." I shrugged as Gibbs watched me closely. I took another long draw from my coffee cup and kept my eyes on a spot on the table.

 

"What's your gut tell you?" 

 

"I've always gotten the feeling that the old man was alive. He either wanted nothing to do with me or mom never even told him I existed." We both grew quiet as I stopped talking. Gibbs looked deep in thought as he leaned back in his chair.

 

"Did she tell you your father's name?" I shook my head, my throat growing tight.

 

"No. However, I have my mother's last name. Or well her married name, the man she married - the man who raised me, James Williams. She says I look a little like him though, my biological dad. I supposedly have his nose and the same eye shape. My hair is like his as well, although it has more hints of red in it." Gibbs nodded and finished off his coffee. This was the most I had spoken to any of them. It was strange, but Gibbs made it easy. After another quiet moment, he cleared his throat.

 

"Why don't you go back down and see if Abby needs a hand with anything?" He stood, adjusting his jacket.

 

"Yeah, okay." Gibbs began to walk away with a set look on his face, leaving me at the table with just my coffee and my thoughts.

* * *

**- Gibbs' POV-**

 

I walked through the autopsy doors to find Palmer stitching up the young Petty Officer's body.

 

"Where's Ducky, Palmer?"

 

"Dr. Mallard went into the store room. He's been in there for a while." I nodded as he went back to what he was doing before slipping into the storage room, only to find Ducky with a concentrated look on his face.

 

"You alright, Duck?" The older man jumped slightly as I spoke. Something was wrong then. I internally shrugged, if it's important he'll tell me.

 

"Oh, Jethro, it's you. Yes, I am fine just a little deep in thought. What can I do for you?"

 

"Is Olivia's mother's name listed in her file?"

 

"I believe so." Ducky moved over to the shelf opposite him and pulled a box down, shuffling through multiple files. He pulled one out, handing it to me.

 

"I believe that everything is in there, but we could always have Abby or McGee dig a little further." 

 

I began to scan until my eyes reached her mother's name next to a picture of a well known face. Cassandra. I swallowed hard as I peered down at that name. I hadn't heard the name in years. Last I had heard she had married not long after we ended things.

 

"What's the matter, Jethro?"

 

"Do you remember Cassandra Fleming?"

 

"She was one of your past relationships wasn't she? I met her a few times when she visited you here. That was a little while after you first joined NIS."

 

"Apparently, she became Cassandra Williams not long after we had ended things. I thought Olivia had looked slightly familiar. She has Cassandra's cheekbones and her chin." I scanned the page again looking for the date I was looking for. Four months ago.

 

"Surely this is pure coincidence, Jethro. I can't believe I didn't recognize her picture." Ducky took the file back from me, his own eyes roaming over the page. He stared at the small photo for a long period of time.

 

"You know how I feel about coincidences, Duck. Plus, twenty-three years is a long time."

 

"Jethro, this says she died four months ago. Olivia signed on as an intern around four months ago."

 

"Yeah, Duck, I know." I went over her file two or three more times, but I felt Ducky's eyes on my face. I snapped the file shut. My mouth dry as I spoke again,

 

"James Williams isn't Olivia's biological father. That is why we didn't find him in our database. He was never an agent."

 

"What are you going to do with this information?" 

 

"No idea." My phone began to ring with McGee's name popping up on the small screen.

 

"Yeah, McGee? Okay, on my way up." I snapped my phone shut before handing the file back to Ducky, who pushed it back into my hands.

 

"Keep it, Jethro. I think we both know I've done all I can to try and assure you that Olivia is no threat to us."

 

I gave Ducky a nod before heading out of autopsy, sending a text to Williams to meet me. My head was reeling. As I walked down the hallway towards interrogation, I found Williams waiting for me as I asked her to. I took a look at her face as she glanced up at me. She slid her phone into her back pocket. I couldn't help myself as my mind flashed back.

 

_"Jethro, I think we need to talk."_

 

_"Cass, I really have to go I've got a dead marine waiting for me." I avoided looking at her as I began attaching my holster to my belt. I stopped as she placed a hand on my shoulder. Turning to her, I finally looked at her. Cassandra's face looked pained._

 

_"What's wrong?"_

 

_"Uh, it's nothing. It can wait, I just wanted to tell you to stay safe."  She offered me a small smile as she touched her fingertips to my cheek._   _I stared at her a little more closely, trying to gauge how she was acting when my phone rang again. I held it up to my ear quickly._

 

_"Yeah, Gibbs." It didn't take long for Mike to bark out his orders and I hung up quickly._   _I took another gaze at Cassandra before she began to nudge me toward the door._

 

_"Go, your marine is waiting for you, Jethro."_

 

"Agent Gibbs?" I came back to reality when I felt a hand touch my shoulder, softly. She took her hand away quickly when she realized I was back in reality. I looked at Williams as I collected my facial expressions.

 

"Go sit in that room with DiNozzo and McGee." She nodded once before turning away from me on the balls of her feet. I waited for her to go into the other room before I opened the door to interrogation.

 

* * *

**\- Olivia's POV -**

 

I stood between DiNozzo and McGee as Gibbs burst through the door on the other side of the mirror. My eyes never left him as he slammed down the dossier onto the table in front of Petty Officer Freeman.

 

"What are your bets on how he breaks him, McGambler?"

 

"Forget it, Tony." I felt his eyes glance down at me, but I kept my mouth shut. It seemed Tony had elected to forget that I was in the room. 

 

"Are you ready to witness some top notch interrogation that only our stoic, fearless leader Leroy Jethro Gibbs can supply?" I looked up to find Tony staring into the other room. His voice was light, but I knew he still didn't trust me.

 

"He's not saying anything."

 

"That my dear young intern, is the classic Leroy Jethro Gibbs stare down. Watch, he's going to take a drink of his coffee." True to DiNozzo's word Gibbs did it. I moved my eyes to the suspect, eyeing him carefully. He seemed far too comfortable even with Gibbs' "stare down" technique. After a few more minutes, Gibbs began to speak,

 

"Can you account for your where abouts last night, Petty Officer Freeman?" Gibbs picked up the dossier and began pretending to peruse its contents. Freeman readjusted slightly in his chair. The flash of a smirk ghosted his face before he schooled his expression. My eyes narrowed and I shifted my stance.

 

"I was with my girlfriend. We were having a little sleepover." Gibbs began to chuckle causing Freeman to follow suit. I was about to make a comment, but DiNozzo held up a hand.

 

"Is that right? Does your girlfriend have a name? I'd like to speak with her."

 

"I would, but she and I are keeping it on the down low." Freeman's arms crossed over his chest. Gibbs nodded before he adjusted his own position, the dossier now open on the table.

 

"Okay, I get it. Then can you tell me what your relationship with Petty Officer Michelle Greene was?" Freeman's face shifted just for a moment, but I didn't doubt that Gibbs saw it. 

 

"We had an. . .interesting relationship. It never went anywhere unfortunately." I felt my face begin to scowl. This guy was scum, and the worst part was is that I don't think he even realizes it. Those are the worst type of guys.

 

"What type of interesting relationship?" 

 

"We had a few late nights."

 

"So, this report that was filed to your CO Lieutenant Keane by Petty Officer Greene is nothing to be concerned about?" Gibbs slid the report across the table, Freeman held it for a moment before tossing it back at Gibbs. I cringed a little, even I knew that that was not a good move.

 

"It was purely a misunderstanding, even Lieutenant Keane agreed."

 

"You see, that's interesting because we found fingertip sized bruises on Petty Officer Greene's hips," Gibbs tossed down a photo before continuing, "I bet that if we compared your fingertips they'd be a pretty decent match." 

 

My brows pulled together as I glanced between the two men on either side of me. It wasn't that easy, surely Gibbs knew that. However, neither McGee or DiNozzo seemed concerned. I turned back to the men in the other room when Freeman grumbled softly.

 

"I never laid a hand on her." Freeman leaned forward, his face growing angry.

 

"That's not what this report says. What happened Freeman? When Greene didn't fall for your lines did you decide to take a more forceful action?"

 

"No." Freeman's voice was tight. Gibbs placed another photo on the table.

 

"I think that you decided to take what you wanted while getting back at her for filing the report. I think you took it one step further and you killed her." 

 

Freeman's face became passive as he leaned back. I heard DiNozzo hiss, making me look up at him. McGee groaned softly as well, grabbing my attention.

 

"He's going to lawyer up." I turned my attention back to the other room just as Freeman began to speak,

 

"I think I'd like my lawyer now, agent Gibbs." Gibbs gathered everything back into the file before standing.

 

"Yeah, I'm sure you would."

 

I watched Freeman fidget slightly as Gibbs walked out of the room, the door slamming behind him. My eyes narrowed as I watched the petty officer practically slammed his fist against the table. Freeman's eyes began to burn a hole into the mirror as if he could see me standing here on the other side. I cocked my head to the side as I watched his unwavering stare. He was our best suspect, but without any DNA on either of the bodies then we had no evidence to hold him. My hand clenched at my side, but when a hand touched my shoulder, I spun with my arm raised ready to strike. I found Gibbs standing there, looking down at me, his eyes searching mine. I lowered my fist and stepped away from him.

 

"You alright, Williams?"

 

"Fine." I swallowed hard, trying my best to maintain eye contact with the older man in front of me. He didn't stop looking at me even as his phone began to ring. 

 

"Gibbs." He listened to whoever was on the other line carefully before he hung up. 

 

"Go down to see, Abby. See if she has something for you to do." 

 

When he walked out the door I felt my shoulders deflate. I shook myself before sending a quick glance back into the interrogation room, Freeman had his head resting on his arms almost as if he was trying to sleep. Rolling my eyes I walked out of the room, heading for the elevator. I pressed the button sharply as DiNozzo came up next to me. I held back a heavy sigh, but for once DiNozzo was silent. The doors opened and he gestured for me to get on first. Once he was on and the doors closed I pressed the button for Abby's floor, but he didn't press anything, which could only mean that he had something he needed to say to me. After we began to move my suspicions were confirmed as he reached out and stopped the elevator completely. I watched him as he leaned against the wall.

 

"Listen, I want to apolo -" I held a hand up to stop him before I gazed up at him. His face wasn't showing much emotion, but his eyes were holding something back.

 

"Don't apologize, it's -"

 

"A sign of weakness. I know, how do you know about rule six?" His brows furrowed just as I'm sure mine did and his eyes held some form of recognition within them.

 

"Rule six? I don't know what that is."

 

"Then how do y - you know what, never mind. What I mean is I was wrong to confront you like that." 

 

"I understood why, though," I sighed before I began to move on, "Tony, you and your team have been through quite a lot, and that is putting it lightly. I understand not trusting me."

 

We stared at each other for a long time. Tony's eyes were soft before he ran a hand through his hair, a smirk coming over his face. I rolled my eyes.

 

"What DiNozzo?" He reached over and turned the elevator back on.

 

"Nothing, you just kind of remind me of someone. Can't seem to put my finger on it though." 

 

I stayed silent, unsure of what to say. I was happy when I finally reached my destination. As I stepped out, greeted by the music coming from Abby's lab. 

 

"Olivia, one more thing, are you okay? You seemed a little off after watching the interrogation." My mouth became dry as I gazed back at him. My tongue wet my lips as I sent him a smile.

 

"I'm good." Tony nodded, but something told me that he knew I wasn't telling the full truth. Still, he allowed the doors to close without another word. I took a deep breath as I ran a hand over my face before making my way into Abby's lab. 

 

"What've ya got, Abs?" I watched her press a few buttons before turning around with enough speed to give anyone whiplash. She had a strange look on her face as her head cocked to the side. I froze on the spot and looked down at myself, but she didn't say anything.

 

"Abby?" I waved a hand before she jumped as if she had been startled.

 

"Sorry, I just had a thought. Did you need something?"

 

"Uh, Gibbs sent me back down here. I'm beginning to wonder if he's just sending me down here to be babysat." I frowned as she chuckled softly. 

 

"Come on, I'm still waiting for some results and watched computers never ding." She ushered me into the other room, where she pushed me into a seat. I watched her as she moved to sit behind the desk when she just started staring at me again. 

 

"Um, Abby is there something wrong?" My brow furrowed as she twisted in her chair.

 

"No, there's nothing wrong. I've kind of been wanting to talk to you though." Abby was wringing her hands as she bit her lip lightly. I braced myself as I waited for her to speak again. When she didn't, I took a deep breath.

 

"Abby, I know about the team looking into my background. I'm not going to be upset if you've done it too, I promise. So, if there is anything you want to know just ask me. I'm not great at talking, but if it helps you trust me then I'll give it a shot." I watched her closely as her eyes widened slightly and she nodded. 

 

"I guess we're all a little obvious, huh?"

 

"Just a smidge, but I understand why me be-"

 

"I know about your mom." I gaped at Abby as she pressed her lips together. I didn't think about any of them finding out about my mother. My mouth was dry again and my throat became chokingly tight. Water. I needed water. My eyes looked around before landing on Abby's Caf-Pow. It wasn't water, but it was liquid and drinkable. Questionable, but drinkable. My hand waved in it's direction causing her to give it to me quickly. I took a few big gulps before making a face. Placing her drink back on her desk, I wiped the corners of my mouth.

 

"Thank you."

 

"Are you okay? I'm sorry, I shouldn't have just brought the subject up like that. I sometimes have a bad habit of just speaking without a filter and and I try to control it, but occasionally it doesn't work out."

 

"No, no it's fine. It's my fault for not even considering any of you would find out about her." My head dropped slightly as I avoided Abby's puppy dog eyes.

 

"To be honest, I don't think McGee or Tony know. Just me, Gibbs, and Ducky." I nodded and swallowed hard. Things were quiet between the two of us when there was a ding from the other room. Abby and I moved quickly to see what her tests were revealing to us. She was clicking away before she reached for her phone, ready to make a call when a voice came from behind us,

 

"What've ya got, Abs?" The two of us spun around, Abby more pleased than surprised like me. 

 

"Gibbs! There you are, what took you so long? You're normally much quicker than this." I glanced between the two of them wondering just how often this type of thing happened. Gibbs rolled his eyes lightly before he smirked switching the Caf-Pow from one hand to the other.

 

"Well, I'm here now so are you going to make me wait or tell me what you've got." The older man quirked a brow causing Abby to smile before gesturing him over to the screens.

 

It looks like all of the blood underneath our petty officer's nails is hers, so no luck there, however, I can tell you that she was not killed on base. The fluid that Ducky found was a no go as well, it only matched our petty officer. The debris that was found along with all of the blood does not match the asphalt at the crime scene. It's most likely from a dirt road, but until we know where that place is then I can't tell you much more."

 

"Is there anything else you can tell me, Abs?" Abby smirked as if she was holding back a secret.

 

"I thought you'd never ask. I can tell you that the stuff that caused the irritation around and in our victim's nose was your run of the mill chloroform. It was a match for the chloroform we found on our first victim."

 

"Thanks Abs." Gibbs handed her the new Caf-Pow and kissed her cheek before turning and leaving the room. I sighed as I watched him leave.

 

"I had to have done something wrong. He didn't even look at me." I folded my arms over my chest as Abby placed a gentle hand on my shoulder.

 

"I'm sure he just doesn't have anything for you to do right now." 

 

"No, that's not it, Abby. He's holding something back." She chuckled a little as she leaned against the metal table across from me. 

 

"What makes you think that?" 

 

"My gut, I suppose." I shrugged before I ran a hand through my hair. I held a strand of it between my fingers when it hit me.

 

"Abby, can you throw the two victims' photos up onto the screen for me?"

 

"Okay, what's going on?" The two photos were up side by side in a flash. I stood there and inspected them closely.

 

"Now, toss up my ID photo between the two." My suspicions were confirmed as I looked at my face next to our victims'. We all look similar. 

 

"Whoa." Abby's voice was surprised as she came to stand next to me. 

 

"I know. I kept wondering why Michelle Greene looked familiar to me, it's because we have similar faces." 

 

"Are you going to tell Gibbs about this? Maybe it's just a really big coincidence." I blew out a puff of breath.

 

"I don't know how it would help, and I don't really believe in coincidences to be honest." Abby sniggered as she looked at me in slight disbelief. 

 

"Here's what we're going to do. I'm going to send this in an email to McGee then you are going to go up and explain it." Abby began typing on her computer before I could stop her.

 

"Abs, Gibbs is going to think this is a waste of time. It was just something that was bothering me. It doesn't mean anything."

 

"Too late. It's already sent, now shoo." Abby began ushering me out the door and to the elevator, pressing the button for me. I groaned as I tried to turn back around to go back to the asylum that is Abby's lab.

 

"Gibbs doesn't want me upstairs for a reason. We should probably keep that in mind." When the elevator doors popped open I was shoved inside. I nearly fell to the ground and as I righted myself the doors were shut. 

 

"Okay, note to self: Abby is surprisingly strong." I leaned against the wall, letting my head hit the cool metal. When the doors opened I heard a smooth accented voice speak,

 

"There you are. Gibbs is waiting for an explanation for the file Abby sent up. Let's go, you can't stay in the elevator all day." I collected myself and sent a glance to Ziva as she held the doors open. Her eyes roved over my face, they were speculative, but I could tell the wheels were turning in her mind. She motioned for me to follow her and finally I relented.

 

When we walked over to the bull pen I noticed that the photos were up on the plasma. Ziva had me walking in front of her, which means that Abby warned her I might try to turn around. Gibbs, McGee, and Tony all turned to look at me, but I was unable to read their eyes. 

 

"I can explain."

 

"Start explaining." Gibbs had a brow quirked up as the other three stood behind him, waiting. I sighed and tucked some of my hair behind my ears.

 

"While we were at Michelle Greene's house earlier I had this gnawing feeling of familiarity. I wasn't really sure why. While I was down in Abby's lab I tried to put my finger on it and I realized why Michelle Greene looked like someone I knew. Michelle Greene, Rachel Harlow, and I all have a similar build and facial features. I wasn't sure until I had Abby put all of our photos up side by side downstairs. I told her that it wasn't important, but she sent it up regardless." I clasped my hands behind my back as I tried to ignore all of their eyes on me. Gibbs' stare was the worst of all as his eyes were slightly narrowed. Ziva was the first to speak,

 

"We could use this, Gibbs. If she's in the room while we interrogate Freeman, it could make him uncomfortable enough or cause him to give something away." I tried to keep my eyes from widening as I tried to swallow. Ziva's suggestion made sense, but if I was being honest with myself I wasn't entirely sure I could do it. I turned to Gibbs, who looked as if he was considering the idea. 

 

"What do you think, Williams?" Gibbs took a sip of his coffee, steeling me with his gaze. My hands curled into fists behind my back and I was nodding before I could stop myself. 

 

"Okay. Let's go, his lawyer is already here." Gibbs grabbed a file off of his desk and began walking away. I gaped after him still unsure of how this happened. Hands grabbed both of my arms causing me to jump before I realized it was McGee and DiNozzo frog marching me towards interrogation.

 

"Usually when Gibbs says 'let's go' that means you follow him, Olivia." Tony was leaned in whispering to me as I glanced between the two of them. I let my feet drag for a moment.

 

"Okay, okay, I can walk." The two of them paused and their hands released me. I shakily brushed my hair over my shoulders before I began taking my own steps. The other three continued to follow me until we came to the hallway to find Gibbs standing outside of the room door. I was left alone with him as Ziva dragged McGee and DiNozzo into the other room. I avoided the older man's eyes by watching the others until he waved the file in front of my face.

 

"Are you positive you can do this?"

 

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure." My voice was breathy even to my ears and I cringed internally.

 

"Pretty sure?" His weight shifted as he stared me down. I froze like a deer in headlights as I met his eyes.

 

"I can do this." My voice was steadier than I had expected it to be, but it worked. He opened the door and had me follow him in, sticking behind him like a shadow. He sat the file on the table before I stepped out from behind him. I watched Freeman's face, but he avoided looking at me all together. Gibbs and I sat down as the lawyer began to make introductions.

 

"Hello I am Mercy Graves, Mr. Freeman's attorney." She held out her hand, but Gibbs only stared at Freeman. Mrs. Graves cleared her throat before folding her hands together.

 

"Agent Gibbs, may I ask why you have continued to detain my client when he has not been formally charged?" Gibbs began to open the file and I shifted in my seat in an attempt to grab Freeman's attention. He glanced my way briefly, but his eyes didn't linger. Gibbs laid out Rachel and Michelle's photos, tapping them.

 

"These two petty officers are Michelle Greene and Rachel Harlow. One of which, we have record that you've had an issue with."

 

"Agent Gibbs, my client has informed me that report filed against him was purely a misunderstanding and was dismissed." I rolled my eyes before I could stop myself and that certainly caught Freeman's attention. He sneered at me as I folded my arms over my chest and leaned back in my chair. 

 

"How is this a misunderstanding? 'Petty Officer Freeman backed me into a corner and placed his hands -'" Gibbs began reading from the report and I watched a smirk come over Freeman's face.

 

"Agent, we've read the report." Mrs. Graves interrupted him before he could get very far as Freeman mirrored my body language. As much as I wished I could pin these murders on Freeman something was telling me that he wasn't the one who killed them. It was obvious he was a creep, but I didn't believe he had the gut to go so far as to kill someone. Gibbs placed the report back into the file along with the photos. He slid the file in front of me, once again drawing Freeman's attention to me. I tried to keep the lump in my throat down as my stomach twisted in disgust. His eyes began to follow my movements as I brought a hand up to my hair to keep it out of my face. Smirking, he leaned forward over the table toward me. He acted as if he wanted to say something, but Mrs. Graves quickly placed a hand on her client's shoulder. Clearing my throat as best as I could, I pulled a notepad from underneath the file and slid it in front of him. 

 

"All we need is an alibi to check out." My voice was thick with upset, but to Freeman's ears it must've sounded like something else. Gibbs' eyes were on me, almost as if he wanted to stop me from holding the pen in my hand out to Freeman. The latter glanced at his lawyer, who shrugged and nodded as if to say it was his choice as well as the quickest way they would get out of here. He took a moment before his large hand encompassed mine to take the pen, his fingers lingering far too long for my liking, however I didn't back down.

 

"For you, gorgeous, I'll give you my alibi. Hell, maybe when this is all over you can give me a call." I noticed he placed his number at the bottom of the page and sent me a wink. I held back the shudder that went down my spine, bringing my hands back into my lap. Freeman finished writing up his alibi before holding the pen out for me to take from him. Gibbs snatched it quickly, picking up the notepad and file. He motioned for me to walk in front of him as we left without another word. We were met with Ziva, McGee, and DiNozzo in the hall once the door was shut behind us. I felt Ziva's eyes on me, but I avoided hers like the plague. Gibbs handed the notepad over to DiNozzo. 

 

"You three follow up on this alibi. Also find out if Freeman and Rachel Harlow ever came into contact with each other." Gibbs' phone went off and he stared at it for a moment. He began walking away without giving me anything to do. DiNozzo and McGee had already begun to leave as well, leaving me alone with Ziva, who was leaning against a wall. I cleared my throat.

 

"I suppose I should go back down to Abby's lab and see if she found anything new." I made to move past her quickly, only to have her hand grip my upper arm. 

 

"Actually, I think you should come help us." She offered me a soft look and I glanced between her gaze and the grip of her hand. I nodded, licking my lips quickly.

 

"Okay, yeah definitely. Umm, I'll meet you back at the bull pen. I've just got to stop off at the restroom." Ziva's eyes burned into me for a moment before she nodded, relenting. We walked together in silence until I split away from her to the solitude of the bathroom. I checked the stalls for feet, but they were thankfully empty. I leaned my hands against the counter, staring at myself in the mirror. 

 

"What happened to your confidence, Olivia? You've got to pull yourself together, woman." I began muttering to myself, turning the cold water tap on. I splashed my face a couple of times before gazing myself down.

 

"You  _can_ do this. Just keep the case at a cautious arm's length. Keep a good distance and you'll make it through." Nodding to myself, I dried my face and hands before schooling my features into a calmer expression, making my way out of the bathroom to the bull pen where the other three were working. I went to Ziva's desk since she was the one, who suggested I help them.

 

"What do you need my help with?"

 

"Just go over Freeman's credit card statements and make sure they match up with all of the places he used it that he mentioned in his alibi. Make sure the dates are correct." She handed me a stack of papers and went back to whatever it was she was doing. I moved to walk to my desk, but a thought stopped me.

 

"Hey Ziva, when I got her this morning you guys were talking about grave plots, but that doesn't seem to be part of this case?"

 

"It was a loose end on a previous case that we needed to take care of before we could finish up the paperwork." She never even looked up from what she was doing, but at least she had been forthcoming with her answer. I didn't say anything more as I made my way over to the small desk that I had been assigned. 

 

* * *

**\- Gibbs' POV -**

 

 

"How's the intern, Gibbs?"

 

"She's definitely an intern, Leon." I watched the director closely as he looked up from some reports on his desk.

 

"Is that all you have to say about her?"

 

"It's still a little early to tell if she'll be a good agent. She seems to be a quick learner, what more do you want to know?" Leon leaned back in his chair and stared up at me, a strange look on his face.

 

"Nothing for now, try to keep me updated." I nodded as he went back to his work and I made my way out of his office. This day was beginning to drag on, Freeman was our only suspect, but if I was being honest with myself I didn't believe it was him. No doubt, the kid was a creep. That much could be seen from the way he looked at Olivia. I stayed at the top of the stairs and looked down at my team, my eyes scanning closely. McGee was typing quickly and Tony and Ziva were speaking back and forth. I could only imagine what it was about this time. I checked on Olivia last, she was semi hidden in her little cubicle, but she was glancing back and forth between her computer screen and papers in her hand. I checked my watch for the time, it was beginning to get late. They all had to be getting hungry right about now and I needed coffee. I made my way down and headed for the elevator, only slightly ignoring DiNozzo's voice as I walked past. 

 

 I called in some pizza as I left the building, pulling my keys out of my pocket. As I sat down in the seat of my car, I glanced into the rearview mirror at my reflection.

 

_"Cass, I'm back!" I called out into the house as I dropped my keys onto the table next to the door. It was still quiet, and I wondered if she was even here. Making my way into the kitchen, I found her standing at the stove, but it was easy to tell that her mind wasn't here. I leaned in the kitchen doorway._

 

_"Hey, everything okay? Cass?" I watched her jump slightly before she began stirring whatever she was cooking. She gave me a smile, but there was something weird about it._

 

_"Everything's fine! Are you hungry? How was work?" Cass turned away from me and began to grab a couple of plates from the cabinet._

 

_"We haven't found any solid leads, yet. Are you sure everything is okay?" I came up behind her as I noticed the plates clinking together as her hands shook softly. I took them from her and sat them on the counter, making her face me._

 

_"What's on your mind, Cass?"_

 

_"I was going to wait until after dinner, but maybe we should talk now."_

 

_"Is this about what you wanted to say this morning?" She nodded and pulled me to sit at the dining table._   _She clasped her hands together and I waited patiently for her to speak._

 

_"Jethro, are - are you happy being with me?"_

 

_"Well, yeah Cass."_   _My brows knit together as I looked at her. Why was she asking me if I'm happy?_

 

_"Do you love me, Jethro?" My head began to reel. What the hell?_

 

_"What's brought this up?" I watched as she wrung her hands together._

 

_"Can you answer the question, Jethro?" I huffed as I turned my eyes away from her. We had only been together for about a year. I didn't know the answer._

 

_"I think I know the answer, but I just wanted to see if I was wrong." She let a small laugh bubble from her lips, which caused me to look at her in slight alarm. I watched her arms wrap her stomach as she bit her lip. Something in my gut told me that that was strange, but her voice captured my attention again._

 

_"I think we should end this. I knew when we first got together that you weren't completely ready. Shannon has the majority of your heart still and that's okay, but now, I feel like I need to protect mine." My mouth went dry. She wasn't completely wrong, but I didn't know what to say to her. I simply nodded and watched her get up from the table to leave the room. I waited until she was upstairs before I moved to the basement._

 

"Jethro? What are you doing?" My mind snapped to the present as I whipped my head around to find Ducky standing close by.

 

"I was on my way to pick up some coffee." I cleared my throat before starting the car.

 

"Would you mind a bit of company?" I waved him over and shut my door as he climbed in. We drove in silence to the diner where I usually get my coffee.

 

"What's on your mind, Jethro?"

 

"Ah, I've just been thinking about Cass a bit." I adjusted my grip on the steering wheel as Ducky hummed softly. The man had something clearly had something on his mind. 

 

"And why has she been occupying that space?" I smirked softly as I tried to hold back a scoff.

 

"For starters, I wasn't expecting her daughter to stumble into NCIS as an intern for the team. I had nearly forgotten her since she left."

 

"You know, I had always wondered what had happened with you two. She seemed to help you with your loss of Shannon and Kelly a little. She seemed to be able to pull a true smile from you."

 

"She felt that she needed to leave. Her reasoning was because she knew I wasn't ready for a relationship so soon after losing Shannon. Cass wasn't wrong, but I felt bad for not being able to give her what she needed." I paid more attention to traffic as Ducky didn't say anything right away. I glanced at him and he seemed to still be preoccupied.

 

"What's on your mind, Duck?"

 

"Does Ms. Williams remind you of anyone?"

 

"She reminds me of Cass a little. Why?"

 

"I meant besides her mother." Ducky looked nervous, almost like he didn't know how to approach something. I pulled the car into a parking space, turning to him. However, he quickly began to chuckle.

 

"On second thought, just forget I even brought it up. I'm sure I'll think of it eventually." I stared at him for a moment, my eyes narrowing, before I decided to just let it go for now.

 

"I'll just be a second, Duck." I crawled out of the car and walked quickly into the diner ordering a couple of coffees to go. Ducky was on the phone as I slid back into my seat.

 

"Yes, thank you Abigail. Let me know what you find." He hung up quickly as I started the car.

 

"Did Abby find something?"

 

"Oh, no this was not case related simply an inquiry I asked of her should she find the time." I quirked an eyebrow before I began driving to the pizza joint, choosing to let the subject drop. After all, it wasn't unusual for people to ask Abby to look into things that weren't related to current cases. I pulled up to the drive through window, paying quickly. I noticed Ducky was smirking softly as he held onto the pizzas.

 

"What now, Duck?"

 

"Nothing, nothing. Simply glad you're keeping your children fed."

 

"They're not my kids." I rolled my eyes as I sped back toward the naval base. My phone buzzed and handed it to Ducky.

 

"They might as well be your kids, Jethro. Also Timothy says that they seem to have finished checking out your suspects alibi."

 

"Okay, can you tell them I'll be there in a few." 

 

I sped up slightly, trying to get back to the base as quickly as possible.

 

* * *

**\- Olivia's POV -**

 

I leaned back in my chair that I had dragged to sit next to Ziva's desk. We had finished going through everything that we could find on Freeman's alibi and currently Ziva and Tony were going back and forth about whether Freeman had kept something from them. 

 

"Tony, you have to face it. Freeman may not be our suspect." Ziva had her head in her hands as she repeated herself for the billionth time. I couldn't deny that she was right and neither could my gut. Tony leaned back in his chair, placing his feet on his desk. I shuffled some papers around that I had been going through before speaking up.

 

"Ziva's right. Plus I don't think Freeman's our guy." I heard Ziva let out a triumphant laugh as Tony stood and walked over to lean against her desk.

 

"C'mon, you can't be serious. You saw how he acted in interrogation. You were in there with him." He folded his arms over his chest as he waited for my reasoning.

 

"True, I was and he is a complete creep. However, even after the first interrogation something was telling me that he isn't capable of killing someone. My gut has rarely led me wrong, Tony." 

 

"Well, let's hope we have something to go off of other than your gut, Williams." Gibbs came walking in with boxes of pizza in his arms, which he sat on his desk. Tony had leaped up from his position and gestured at McGee before pressing a button on the control. Ziva and I joined him and Gibbs as McGee spoke from his desk.

 

"It's more like what we don't have, boss. We dug through all of Freeman's credit statements and I finished speaking with his girlfriend. Everything comes back accurately. It looks like he's clean." 

 

"We can't hold him then. Do we have anything else to go off of? Any leads?" Tony clicked another button, bringing up emails onto the plasma screen.

 

"I went back through and found that Rachel Harlow and Michelle Greene had been having an email correspondence. It seems to be innocent enough except for the fact that the emails are being exchanged via dummy accounts. I sent copies down to Abby to see if there was anything she could gather from them."

 

Gibbs nodded, but didn't say anything as he looked at the screen. My eyes kept going back to the pizza boxes he was still holding, but I didn't want to be the one to say anything. I cheered internally when I noticed Tony's eyes doing the same thing. He would break down and do it before anyone else would. When Gibbs noticed none of us had moved he glanced at all of us before glancing at the boxes in his arms. He held them out to Tony before he moved away to sit at his desk.

 

"Grab a slice and get back to work. I want you all to go over Harlow and Greene's days again, see if there's anything else we missed." He began reading a file that had been placed on his desk while he had been out. It was quiet in the bull pen as I sat with Ziva while Tony and McGee were putting their heads together. It wasn't long before a throat was being cleared.

 

"Excuse me, Agent Gibbs, but is my client free to leave?" We all looked up at Mrs. Graves as she waited with her arms crossed. In truth I had forgotten about the both of them, still waiting in interrogation. Gibbs never even looked up before he nodded his head.

 

"Sure, just make sure he knows not to leave town until we get this figured out. I may have more questions. The agent that is standing outside the interrogation door can escort you down to the lobby." Once the lawyer was gone, I turned back to my work.

 

I was making notes in the margins when I heard a voice coming from near the window. Looking up, I found Freeman making his way over to Ziva's desk. His lawyer was making a sour face, but it seemed she barely had any pull over him.

 

"Hi, I wanted to be sure that you still had my number." I kept my face blank as I looked up at him. He was smirking, clearly enjoying being able to look down at me from his full height. My head shook and I turned back to what I had been working on.

 

"C'mon sweetheart, don't be like that." My hands froze as I brought my head up slowly.

 

"Excuse me?" I cocked my head to the side as I gazed up at him. My stomach was clenching. Ziva's eyes were on me, probably trying to gauge my reaction and what it meant. The breath had left my lungs and it was like I couldn't get it back. Vaguely, I realized someone came over to escort Freeman away from me. I felt a hand on my upper arm again and I jumped. Ziva's voice was soft in my ear as she pulled me up from my chair.

 

"Come with me." Ziva began steering me away from the bull pen and towards the bathroom. I let her guide me as I attempted to get my breath back. When we were in the bathroom Ziva checked for feet in all of the stalls before turning to me. She placed her hands back on my shoulders, turning my body to face her. She stooped down trying to find my eyes. 

 

"You don't have to tell me anything. Not unless you want to." I nodded quickly as my breathing began to even out a little more. Ziva never let go of my shoulders and that was a little reassuring, however I couldn't stop myself from thinking that this could potentially harm my internship. I shook my head just the slightest bit to try and shove that thought from my brain, at least for now. Ziva was patient with me and finally I looked at her, my mouth dry.

 

"Thanks." 

 

"You're welcome. Do you wish to talk about it?" I leaned against the counter as she leaned against the wall.

 

"I honestly wouldn't know where to begin."

 

"I should've never suggested that you join Gibbs in interrogation." I shrugged at her.

 

"No, I wanted to help and that was a way to get an alibi. You couldn't have known how it would effect me. Hell, I didn't even know how it was going to effect me."

 

"He reminded you of someone." I wanted to laugh. She was just so direct with her thoughts, and maybe that's why I liked Ziva. She could be intimidating, but at least you usually knew where you stood with her.

 

"Yeah, he did." I shifted my weight to my left foot as I looked to the ceiling. Ziva was quiet.

 

"Like I said, you don't have to tell me anything unless you want to, but should you need to talk about it you can come to me." She was next to me after a moment, offering me a gentle smile. It warmed her eyes, which was a soft comfort.

 

"Thank you, Ziva. I should be okay now, we should probably get back to work before Gibbs storms in here or something." I smirked as I tried to joke and she accepted it before holding the door open for me. We made our way back to the bull pen in an effortless silence and I saw Gibbs' desk was empty. The corners of my mouth pulled down as I turned to Tony and McGee.

 

"Where did Gibbs go?" Tony stood with his hands in his pockets as McGee was looking up at me softly and speculatively.

 

"He went to have a chat with agent Combes. Are you good?"

 

"I'm fine, who is agent Combes?" I furrowed my brow as I looked between the two male agents. Tony coughed slightly before answering,

 

"He was the agent who was escorting Freeman and his lawyer out of the building." He scratched the back of his head, but his eyes never left my face. I sighed before I began to twist my fingers together.

 

"Listen, I'm good. What happened isn't something I'm up to talking about right now, okay?" They both nodded as Ziva smirked from behind her desk. I made to move back to my chair when I heard a jingling of metal running our way.

 

"Gibbs, Gibbs, Gibbs!" I spun around to find Abby practically bouncing in place as she looked around the bull pen. Tony moved to stand in front of her, placing his hands on her shoulders to calm her down.

 

"He's off lecturing another agent, what'd you find, Abs?"

 

"No, I'm not." Tony and I both spun back around only to be met with Gibbs walking back to his desk, his jaw slightly set.

 

"Gibbs! Rachel Harlow and Michelle Greene were in a relationship!"

 

"How did you find that out?"

 

"I tracked Michelle Greene's dummy email account to a dating website for people who are mainly in the LGBT community, where I also found a profile for Rachel Harlow. I also don't think they were using code to talk, well at least not one that I've ever seen, but a lot of them were most definitely love letters." Gibbs' brows were furrowed as I heard McGee tapping on his computer and placing the dating profiles on the plasma. Ziva came up behind me as she began scanning the images.

 

"Why do you think they were trying to hide it?"

 

"Probably because there are still a lot of people who don't agree with their kind of love. I have a cousin who's gay and he kept it hidden for a long time because of my aunt and uncle." My voice was bitter as I spoke about my aunt and uncle. They had been awful people, both before and after my cousin decided to tell them.

 

"Uh, boss you might want to look at this email. It's in both of their inboxes, dated back weeks before the murders." McGee plastered the identical emails up side by side on the plasma.

 

"'Your type of relationship is an abomination. I can't wait to put my hands on you and teach you why a relationship is supposed to be between a man and a woman only.'" Ziva sounded disgusted and the email made my skin crawl just a little. Abby's smile had fallen off her face as she read more of what the email had to say, her hand clutching the pendant that was hanging off of her dog collar.

 

"McGee, can you trace that?"

 

"I can try, but it's going to take some time."

 

"Do it. Tony, I want you to go back to Norfolk and talk to some of Michelle Greene's coworkers again, find out if anyone knew anything. Ziva, Olivia, I want you two to comb through every email in both of these accounts, see if there is any other threatening messages." I nodded and went back to my chair, pulling my computer onto my lap, finding an email of the file from McGee already. It didn't escape my attention that Abby was still standing there looking at Gibbs. Nor did it escape my attention that she was glancing between the two of us.

* * *

 

**\- Gibbs' POV -**

 

 

"Gibbs, can we go down to my lab and talk?" Something in Abby's voice made me glance up at her.

 

"Is it about the case?"

 

"Um, no it's something personal." I stared at her for a long moment before I nodded.

 

"I'll meet you down there." 

 

She glanced back over at Olivia before she walked away. I turned my eyes onto Olivia too, she had her leftover slice of pizza hanging from her mouth as she scrolled through her computer. It made me want to smirk. Shaking my head, I made my way to pick up a Caf-Pow for Abby. She had seemed a little keyed up, and maybe caffeine would get her to talk about what was on her mind. Not that it wasn't easy to get her to talk without it. I paid for the caffeinated drink before crawling into the elevator. As the doors opened on Abby's floor the first thing I noticed was that it was far too quiet. It was pretty unusual for Abby to not have her favorite noise that she called music blaring through her speakers. Walking in, I found Abby and, unsurprisingly, Ducky waiting for me.

 

"Okay, what is going on?" I sat the Caf-Pow on the metal table next to me and waited for one of them to begin. Abby looked like she was about to burst and Ducky looked like he was yet again having issues with trying to find his words. I was getting impatient and about to say something again when Abby's voice bubbled out from behind her lips,

 

"We think Olivia might be your daughter!" She covered her mouth as my own jaw went slack. They had to be kidding.

 

"You think what?" I moved closer, my brows furrowed and my eyes squinting. Ducky sighed, his eyes crinkling in a strange way as if he was trying to come to terms with what he was trying to say, before he recanted Abby's words,

 

"Abigail and I believe, that Ms. Williams is your daughter, Jethro."


	2. Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: this chapter contains panic attacks and references abuse

**\- Gibbs' POV -**

 

 

I stared between Abby and Ducky in disbelief for a moment before I schooled my expression into a blank one. Crossing my arms, I shifted my weight on my feet. I wasn't entirely certain what to even say. Abby moved closer, placing a gentle hand on my shoulder.

 

"Gibbs - "

 

"No, stop. What gave you this bright idea?" They looked at each other as I waited.

 

"Abigail and I have been digging deeply into this. The timeline fits and if we are correct then that means Cassandra would have been pregnant when she left you." I stared at Ducky, who had seemed hesitant to tell me that last bit. Taking a deep breath, my nostrils flared as I stared at the ceiling. My mind reeling. I was still having a hard time understanding why they would even be fact checking this. I rubbed my face roughly. 

 

"Why look into this in the first place? That's what I want to know." I looked at Abby, who looked a little guilty. It didn't take long for her to cave.

 

"After finding out that we were getting a new intern, I began digging because you know we can never be too careful. Especially when it comes to inviting new people into our family. Then I met her and she wasn't so bad, she's actually really nice if not a little stoic sometimes. Ducky called me earlier today though and I began to dig a little deeper. So, I guess this was my idea to begin with. Ducky is right, Gibbs and we wouldn't be telling you if we weren't sure about this." Abby was wringing her hands as she turned to her computer, typing away. She pulled up Cass's picture alongside mine.

 

"What are you doing?"  

 

"I took yours and Mrs. Williams' photos and morphed them into what an offspring between the two of you could potentially look like. I was mostly just playing around at first. I know it's not a full proof method, but it's uncanny. I know that you know that there are no such things as coincidences, Gibbs." She hit a button before the morphing began. When it was over she threw up a photo of Olivia directly next to the morphed picture. I stared at them and had to admit that they looked similar. I shook my head. I didn't even want to think about Cassandra leaving because she thought I wasn't ready for another kid.  

 

"Abby, this doesn't prove anything. None of what the two of you have proves anything." Ducky sighed as he nodded, but I didn't think that for a second that he was going to let this go.  

 

"Gibbs, you know I can prove this. All I would need is DNA samples." Abby's eyes were large and were reminding me of a hopeful puppy. I had to put a stop to this.

 

"No! I want the two of you to let this go. There is nothing to this. No more digging." I tried to keep my voice sure and stern, but even I noticed the slightest bit of doubt that was laced throughout it. I began to walk away just needing room to breathe, but I was stopped as I reached the door. 

 

"Jethro, there's something else we think you should know. Abby found something while she was digging. It is a police report from about a year and half ago." The only thing that made me turn was the sound of Ducky's voice. Whatever they had found, wasn't anything good. Ducky picked a file up off of the table behind him before handing it to me. 

 

"Police report? She doesn't have a record. That would have been flagged the moment she applied for the internship." I began to open it up to read, but Ducky stopped me.

 

"I don't think you should read this here." I gave him a strange look, but nodded. Ducky looked solemn and he usually only reserved that look for few things, one of them being when he tells me tragic news about our victims. I looked back over at Abby and she was still looking at the morphed picture. She had a determined look on her face and I knew they weren't going to let this go. 

 

"Abs, get rid of it."

 

I left her lab without another word. As I waited for the elevator I looked down at the file in my hand. I stepped on  trying to avoid this weird feeling in my gut, but it felt a lot like the one from the day Cass actually left. When the doors opened I made my way over to my desk and put the file in a drawer. Looking around, I found DiNozzo napping at his desk and Ziva was drifting off with papers in her hand. McGee wasn't around and I didn't see Williams either. I glanced at my watch to check the time. _When the hell did it get this late?_   I didn't think that I had been down in the lab for very long. McGee walked up with a pack of Nutter Butters in his hand when I next looked up. His hands nearly dropped his snack and his mouth began to gape like a fish.

 

"Gibbs!" McGee's voice caused DiNozzo and Ziva to pop up and tried to look busy. I held back a smirk, pushing Abby and Ducky's so called revelation to the back of my mind.

 

"Go home. It's late, we'll take a look at stuff with fresh eyes in the morning. Where's Williams?" Ziva cleared her throat and pointed down near her feet. I motioned for the others to go ahead.

 

"Are you leaving too, Gibbs?" Ziva stood close by not moving from her spot. DiNozzo and McGee paused in their movements too, looking at me. I didn't look up as I looked over a stack of papers on my desk. 

 

"Yeah, I'm going home too. Go on, I'll wake up Williams." I grabbed my stuff and walked around my desk. McGee and DiNozzo started moving again, Ziva grabbed her stuff too, but she stood by. Something coming over her face as she glanced down at the younger girl. DiNozzo paused as he waited for Ziva, who leaned over and whispered something to him quickly. 

 

"I'll wait for Olivia and walk down with her." I nodded as I bent down and gently shook Olivia's shoulder. Normally, I'd let her sleep, however, if the team wasn't staying she had no need to; what I wasn't expecting was for her to pop up and throw herself backwards, crying out,

 

"Don't touch me!" She began to feel around her hip as if she was looking for something. Her eyes were wide and I felt my frown deepen as I began to shush her.

 

"Hey, hey easy, it's me. Gibbs. It's time to go home, kid." I held my hands up in front of me as Ziva came to crouch back down next to Olivia. She looked around, her eyes still a little wild and her chest heaving. Her tongue jet out to wet her lips. She ran a hand through her hair as she tried to calm down. She latched a hand onto Ziva's arm, who began to speak softly,

 

"Olivia, breathe with me. You are at NCIS and you are safe." Olivia's breathing evened out and she slumped against Ziva's small filing cabinet. Ziva smoothed out Olivia's hair and Olivia nodded her head. She released Ziva's arm and I noticed Ziva flex it lightly.

 

After a couple more minutes it seemed as if she began to gather her bearings. The silence was overbearing when Olivia sat up straight, looking between Ziva and I. 

 

"Oh, I didn't mean to fall asleep." I watched her for a minute as she schooled her face into a calmer expression. I softened my face before speaking,

 

"It's time to head home anyway. C'mon, let's go." I stand up, taking her hand and pulling her up off the floor. Olivia straightened her clothes before looking up at me.

 

"Did you say it's time to go home? I didn't think we'd do that for at least a few more hours." She began to stretch out a little bit. Almost acting as if she didn't just have a panic attack. I kept my eyes on her face, but she seemed to be fine and I gazed at Ziva.

 

"Well with everyone falling asleep, none of you are coherent enough. Time to go get some rest. Grab your stuff, Ziva will walk you down." Ziva glanced at me, but nodded her head as Olivia walked to her desk. Ziva flashed her eyes at the girl before quickly whispering,

 

"Gibbs, are you just going to ignore what just happened?" 

 

"No, I'm not," I leaned in closer before continuing, "Can you make sure she gets home? I've got something I need to look at." 

 

"Do you need help?" 

 

"No, just make sure she's taken care of." Ziva nodded as Olivia walked back over a small smile gracing her face. 

 

"Are you ready to head down, Ziva?" 

 

"Yeah, are you hungry? We can stop somewhere before you head home." 

 

Ziva glanced at me as she looped her arm through Olivia's and pulled her away. Sighing, I moved back around my desk and sat down. I pulled out the police report and cracked it open. 

 

 

**\- Olivia's POV -**

 

Ziva and I slid into a booth at some diner and I eagerly picked up the menu. I felt Ziva's eyes on me, and I made myself look up at her. 

 

"So, what's good here?" She took the menu from my hands and placed it down in front of her. I could tell that she wanted answers. If I was being honest with myself, I kind of wanted to give them. I felt like I could trust Ziva, even with her sometimes cold exterior; I could tell that she was a good person. Not to mention she would know how to keep a secret. I waited for her to come up with her words.

 

"Olivia, I know that earlier I told you that you didn't have to tell me anything if you weren't ready. You still don't, but when Gibbs woke you, you were frightened. I don't know what has happened to you, but whatever it is it's clear that it's still effecting you." I sighed as I leaned forward, folding my hands on the tabletop. I opened my mouth to speak, but we were interrupted by a waitress. 

 

"What can I get you and your friend, Ziva?" 

 

"I'll take a coffee, Shiree, please." The two of them looked to me and I floundered slightly. 

 

"Me too, please."  

 

"Alright, I'll be right back with that, but if you girls get hungry just call me over." Shiree nodded and walked away only to come back with our coffees. We thanked her again as Ziva began to add cream and sugar to her cup, and we were left in silence. I took a deep breath, trying to convince myself that I could talk about this. That I needed to talk about this.

 

"Almost a year and a half ago I had met this man. He turned out to not be a very good guy, but I was with him for a year before my mother managed to get me out. We filed restraining orders and everything, but that was all that could be done. He's a pretty powerful guy with lots of fancy lawyers."

 

Ziva was quiet as she stared back at me. I could tell that she wanted to know more. She had about a billion questions waiting behind her eyes. Ones that I wasn't entirely certain I had answers to. I sighed and lifted my coffee cup to my lips shakily. 

 

"Did he hurt you?"

 

"Officially or unofficially?" I quirked an eyebrow, snorting causing Ziva's brow to furrow.

 

"What do you mean?"

 

"I mean, officially it's true that he's not allowed to be near me because of some of the things he did, although it's not stated on the record. Unofficially is an entirely different story." I let my eyes fall into my coffee cup, swallowing hard. One of Ziva's hands gripped my wrist causing me to close my eyes. I pulled away gently, not wanting to offend her.

 

"Ziva, I know what you're thinking, but I don't need you to pity me. I'm fine and I've been dealing with it."

 

"I'm not pitying you, Olivia." Her voice made me look up and I saw an almost stern look staring back at me. 

 

"Then what is this, Ziva? Why are you trying to get to know me? I'm nothing, but an intern."

 

"You may be just an intern, but you were assigned to our team and our team is like a family. We take care of our own. I can see that you are a strong person and I admire that about you, but I know from experience, even strong people need help." Ziva's eyes were soft as she looked at me over her coffee cup and I felt guilt grip me lightly. It seemed I was just saying all of the wrong things today.

 

"Thank you, Ziva. I apologize for assuming like that." I grimaced slightly, but she waved it off.

 

"I understand. So, have you always lived in D.C.?"

 

"Are you telling me that you didn't read my file like everyone else?" I smirked when Ziva chuckled softly.

 

"I did, but I would prefer to hear from you. I mean, unless you're tired. Do you have an apartment here yet?"

 

"Ah, that would be a no. I was planning on meeting with someone this week about apartments, but for now I'm staying in a hotel."

 

"A hotel?"

 

"Yeah, before I started the internship I was living in Norfolk with my mom since she was sick. James has been gone for a year now and I can't bring myself to stay there now that mom is gone too." Ziva was shaking her head before I even finished speaking.

 

"I can't let you stay in a hotel. You're going to come back to my place." Ziva stood up and I felt my words getting caught in my throat.

 

"Z-Ziva, I can't impose. Really, I'm fine at the hotel. It's not so bad."

 

"Enough, you can come stay with me until you can get an apartment." She pulled out money, placing it on the table before she messed with her phone. I didn't move until she began to walk away, making me chase after her. I called out a thank you to Shiree before I made it out of the door. Ziva was standing next to our cars, still typing away on her phone.

 

"Here is the address to my apartment building, go pick up your stuff from the hotel and you can meet me there." I bit my lip and avoided her eyes as I leaned against my car.

 

"About that. . ."

 

"You don't have a hotel room yet do you?" 

 

"Not yet." I heard Ziva laugh before she crossed her arms over her chest.

 

"Olivia, what were you going to do if you couldn't get a hotel room? A lot of places get booked days in advance and the cheaper ones are far too seedy to actually stay in." Her eyes were narrowed at me and I looked to the sky. 

 

"I don't know, Ziva. Stay in my car? I haven't been worried about it." Ziva began texting again and I stood there feeling like a scolded child. When she was done she slid her phone in her pocket.

 

"Is everything you need in your car?" 

 

"Yeah, of course. Why?" I frowned as she peeked around me to look into my backseat.

 

"Good, then let's get home. I need sleep and I'm sure you do too." Ziva slid into her car and I rushed around mine, crawling in quickly. 

 

**\- Gibbs' POV -**

 

 I leaned back in my chair, rubbing my hands over my face roughly. I glanced at the still open file before slamming it shut, pushing it away from me. How could we not know about this? Groaning, I realized Vance probably did know. Checking my watch, I gripped the file and grabbed my keys. I needed to talk to Ducky. I lifted my cell to my ear as the elevator began to go down.

 

"Duck? Are you still at NCIS?" I waited for a minute as Ducky answered.

 

"Meet me in the gun range." I quickly hung up as the elevator signaled my arrival to where I wanted to be. Stepping out, I waved to the agent that keeps track of everything that goes on.

 

"Gibbs, it's pretty late isn't it?"

 

"Yeah Modesto, it is, but I needed a quiet place to think. Am I good?"

 

"Ah, you know it's hard for me to say no to you, Gibbs. I'm just going to run up and get a quick bite to eat. Take your time."

 

I began to load my gun and set up my target as Modesto took his leave. I took aim and fired. When I was out of rounds I began to reload again, hitting a button to reset the target. I heard the elevator ding, signaling someone's arrival. Ducky appeared next to me, a knowing look on his face. I tapped the headset on the wall, motioning for him to put them on. I glanced at him to make sure his ears were covered before releasing a hail of bullets on the new target. When my gun was empty once more, I hit a button bringing my targets towards me as Ducky took his headset off. I placed my gun on the shelf before leaning my hands against it.

 

"I take it you read the police report."

 

"Why weren't we informed of this when we took her on? Vance has to know about this." My voice was tight, even to my ears and my hands gripped the shelf until my knuckles were white.

 

"I'm not sure. She passed the psych evaluations with mostly flying colors." Ducky's tired eyes were gazing at the grouping of my shots. 

 

"Mostly?"

 

"There were a couple things that flagged, but it was when she had been talking about the passing of her mother. It wasn't anything that caused alarm." I nodded, but sighed as I grabbed his attention again.

 

"Duck, we placed her in an interrogation room with a class A creep. Afterwards, he accosted her in the bull pen and she froze. I knew something was wrong, but I had no idea it was _that_. She had fallen asleep on the floor and when we woke her she panicked, acting as if someone was going to hurt her. Now, I know why." My mouth was dry as Ducky sighed next to me. 

 

"Jethro, when you took her into interrogation you were not aware of what she had been through."

 

"She was hesitant the moment Ziva mentioned it, but I was so intent on getting Freeman's alibi that I chalked it up to intern nerves. If I would have known about this she wouldn't have been anywhere near Freeman." 

 

I yanked my targets down and tossed them in the trash before taking a seat. Ducky's eyes were watching me closely, speculatively, as he found an extra chair. Things were quiet between us as I began thinking about Olivia. I hope Ziva took care of her and made sure she made it home. My phone buzzed in my pocket. Pulling out my phone, I found a message from Ziva and I pinched the bridge of my nose.

 

"What is it?"

 

"It's from Ziva. Earlier once Olivia was calm again, I had Ziva walk out with her and asked her to make sure Olivia made it home without any problems."

 

"And?"

 

"It turns out, Olivia was planning to stay in a hotel, and if that didn't pan out she was going to sleep in her car."

 

"Surely Ziva didn't let her." I puffed out a light laugh as I pulled up Ziva's number to call her before putting my phone up to my ear.

 

"No, she didn't. Hey Ziva, do you have her with you?" Ducky's eyes were on my face as I listened to Ziva explain her plan to me. 

 

"Are you sure you have enough room in your apartment?" I felt myself nodding along to what she was saying, taking at least a little comfort in knowing Olivia would be in good hands. 

 

"Ziva, thanks. See you in a few hours." I hung up the phone and found Ducky looking at me expectantly. 

 

"She is making Olivia stay at her apartment until she can get herself set up in a place. Apparently, Cass's house is for sale over in Norfolk."

 

"Is that all she has to depend on?"

 

"That's what it sounded like to Ziva." I rubbed the side of my face as I leaned back in my chair. Things were quiet again, but I could tell there was something Ducky wanted to say. I gestured for him to get it off his chest, even though I knew I probably wasn't going to like it.

 

"Jethro, I know you told Abby and I to let this go, but have you thought any more about the possibility of Olivia being your daughter."

 

"Nope." I knew it was a lie, hell Ducky probably knew it was a lie. My mind brought up images of Cass covering her stomach with her arms. I blinked them away quickly before focusing back in.

 

"I understand that it's not an easy thing to wrap your head around -"

 

"What exactly are you wanting me to do, Duck? I can't exactly swoop in claiming to be her father." That seemed to shut him up and I groaned.

 

"You're right. I didn't think about that. All I was thinking about was a young woman potentially being reunited with her father when she has already lost everyone she had. This girl needs a family, Jethro. She reminds me a lot of you. She has an amazingly accurate gut instinct, keeps herself closed off, and she's quick witted. Olivia has been through a lot in her short life, and it's made her stronger when it should've broken her," Ducky stood and began to walk away, "Think about it, Jethro and for crying out loud go home and get some sleep."

 

He left me sitting there, not even giving me a chance to get a word in, which was smart on his end. I began cleaning up the mess I made, Ducky's words echoing in my head. The words from the police report reappearing in front of my eyes in small flashes. Shaking my head, I heard the elevator ding signaling the Modesto's return.

 

"Still here, Gibbs?"

 

"Nah, just about to leave. Thanks for the privacy, Modesto."

 

"Any time, hey I never got to say thank you for that jewelry box, Elizabeth loves it."

 

"Not a problem, have a good night." I loaded into the elevator, sending Modesto a wave. I really needed a drink.

 

**\- Olivia's POV -**

 

 When we got to Ziva's apartment I wasn't expecting to find Tony waiting for us. I glanced at Ziva, but she didn't seem surprised that he was there. I kept my face as blank as I could when he stood from his position on the couch.

 

"Oh good, you're home. I've got some fresh sheets ready so we could make up a pseudo bed." Despite myself I felt my brow furrow. Was there something going on between them? How did I miss that? I watched as Ziva placed her hand on his shoulder gently in a silent thank you. I could also see the questions in Tony's eyes and I averted mine to the floor. Ziva began whispering to him and it wasn't long before I heard his footsteps walking away. 

 

"You can place your things there at the end of the couch and we can get your bed made." Ziva began unfolding the sheet as I moved quickly, dropping my things. I picked up the other end and together we set up the couch. Once we were done, Ziva smoothed her shirt down and ran a hand through her hair. 

 

"It's not much, I know, but it's better than you sleeping in your car. The bathroom is just right over there, feel free to use whatever you need. If you need me, my bedroom is just down that small hallway."

 

"Thank you, Ziva." I nodded as she sent me a soft smile.

 

"See you in the morning."

 

Ziva walked away, her footsteps light. I released a puff of breath before allowing myself to sink onto the soft couch. I glanced around the apartment landing on the large window. Hauling myself off the couch, I moved over to look out of it. My heart began to pick up speed as I peered out into the street below. My fingernails began to dig into the skin of my palm. I shook my head before gripping the window's curtains, yanking them shut before I moved back to my suitcase.

 

Once I found my pajamas I tiptoed over to the bathroom to not disturb Ziva and. . .Tony. That was still a bit strange to wrap my head around. I closed the door gently and came face to face with myself in the mirror. I jumped and clutched my chest.

 

"Pull yourself together Williams. You're doing just fine." I turned the tap on, splashing my face with cold water. I changed quickly before making my way back to the small living room, only to be met with Tony walking out of the kitchen. Stopping in my tracks, I gathered my clothes closer to my chest.

 

"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you. I was just getting a glass of water." He held up his glass, but his movements were slow, which didn't escape my notice. Which meant he most likely knew something about what happened. I grimaced and shook my head.

 

"No, you didn't startle me." It was a lie that even I could hear - and he was the trained agent. I made my way over to my suitcase, putting my things away while his eyes remained on me. I moved to sit on the couch and I looked back at him. His eyes met mine before he moved to perch on the coffee table in front of me.

 

"You know, I wanted to apologize for how I treated you earlier today," I began to shake my head, but Tony held his hand up, "Let me finish. This team is my family and I'm very protective of it. I'm hoping we can start over."

 

There was something in Tony's eyes as I looked into them, but I couldn't quite place my finger on it. A lump began to form in my throat, making it hard to swallow. I nodded, clearing it, before wetting my lips.

 

"I would like that." I held my hand out to him, and it didn't take long for it to be wrapped in his much larger one.

 

"You should probably get some sleep." Tony stood and began to move towards the small hallway. He stopped about halfway before turning back to me.

 

"If you need someone to talk to - if you ever don't feel safe - Olivia, I need you to let one of us know. Because if you're going to be with us for a while then that means you're going to become family too."

 

Tony didn't give me a chance to reply as he made his way back to Ziva's bedroom. Reaching over, I turned the lamp off and slid down into a more comfortable position. I laid there, gazing up at the ceiling until I couldn't hold my eyes open any longer.

 

**\- Ziva's POV -**

 

 Tony made his way back into the room gently shutting the door behind him. Placing his glass of water on the bedside table, he sighed.

 

"Was she still awake?"

 

"She was just coming out of the bathroom when I walked out of the kitchen. It didn't escape my notice that she closed the curtains on the window. There's probably something to that."

 

"What are we supposed to do, Tony? You didn't see her when Gibbs woke her. She was so frightened. Then once she was calm again it was like it never happened." Tony crawled into the bed next to me, caressing my arm gently.

 

"Did she tell you anything else?"

 

"If you're asking me if she gave me a name the answer is no." My phone buzzed on the nightstand. Picking it up, I wasn't surprised to see a message from Gibbs. 

 

"What is it?"

 

"It's Gibbs, checking in on her." I bit my lip as I leaned against the head board as I sent a quick message back. When I sat my phone back down on the nightstand, I crossed my arms turning to him.

 

"Does Olivia remind you of anyone? Someone that we know."

 

"What do you mean?"

 

"I'm not sure, it's just - you're going to think I'm crazy." I shook my head before running a hand through it. Tony let out a small laugh before he adjusted his pillow. I narrowed my eyes at him before moving to lay on my side to face him.

 

"Ziva, I always think you're crazy. Just tell me what's on your mind." 

 

"She reminds me of Gibbs. It's a lot of small things. The way she doesn't let anyone truly see what she's thinking. The girl trusts her gut as much as he trusts his own. She even drank the diner's coffee without anything extra added in." Tony's eyes stared at me, but his brow furrowed as he thought back through today.

 

"I don't think you're crazy." His voice was a whisper, but there was something underlying there. I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose, guilt bubbling in my chest. 

 

"She didn't want to go into that interrogation room today. She was hesitant and I suggested it. Then when Freeman came up to her in the bull pen - Tony, I feel horrible."

 

"Hey, we had no way of knowing about this. You didn't know. For now, all we can do is just take her under our wing, so to speak. Look out for her. Letting her stay here was a good move." I nodded as he brushed some of my hair behind my ears. 

 

"Let's get some sleep. You know Gibbs is going to want us there early." Tony leaned back and turned the lamp off before pulling me closer. I let the beating of his heart in his chest calm me enough to allow me to sleep.

 

* * *

 

**\- Olivia's POV -**

 

I sat upright, my breathing erratic and sweat rolling down my face. I pushed the hair off my forehead as I tried to ease my racing heart. I heard the apartment door open and I turned quickly, only to find a sweaty Ziva in running clothes. I let my shoulders deflate, telling myself to relax.

 

"Good morning, Olivia."

 

"Morning."

 

"Are you alright?" Ziva was in front of me in a flash. Her hand under my chin, making me look at her.

 

"I'm fine, just a dream." I gently pulled myself away from her, her concern reminding me of my mother just the tiniest bit. It was strange having her so close to me. She didn't look convinced, but she nodded. I cleared my throat and wiped my sweaty palms on my pajama pants.

 

"What time do we need to be in the office?"

 

"We have about an hour and I was thinking that maybe we could stop for breakfast at the diner this morning. Why don't you take a quick shower and get ready? I've got to force Tony to wake up." Ziva stood up and began to move towards her room, leaving me to my own devices. I stood and grabbed my toiletries bag along with my clothes for the day before moving quickly towards the bathroom. I showered and changed quickly, not wanting to keep Ziva waiting. When I reentered the living room, the sheets I had slept on were folded again. My brow furrowed as I began to put away my things.

 

"I went ahead and folded those back up for you." I turned around to find Tony dressed and ready to go as he was buttoning the sleeves of his shirt.

 

"You didn't have to do that, but thank you."

 

"Are you two ready to go? We may have to get breakfast to go. McGee said Gibbs is already at the office." Ziva appeared with her backpack slung over her shoulder, her gun already holstered to her hip.

 

"That's if he even left last night. Let's get going." Tony offered me a smile as I hurriedly picked up my own bag, following him out of the apartment with Ziva locking the door behind us. Once we made it down to our cars, I began digging for my keys. 

 

"Olivia, what's on your windshield?" My head popped up, a flash of fear gripping me as Tony moved closer to my car, Ziva was at my side and I could feel her arm hovering behind me.

 

"It's a -"

 

"Daisy." My voice cracked as I spoke catching their attention. Ziva's voice was in my ear,

 

"C'mon, you're riding with me today." She led me to her car before ushering me inside and shutting the door. I didn't even turn as she slid in.

 

"Tony took photos and bagged it up, we'll take it to Gibbs -"

 

"No! He can't know! If Gibbs finds out about this he may not let me continue my internship. Ziva, I have to learn from the best and Gibbs is the best." My heart rate sky rocketed as I turned to face her as she drove. Her face was calm, almost masklike. 

 

"Olivia, what does that daisy mean? If it has something to do with what happened to you then Gibbs can help. If that flower has anything to do with him then that means he is breaching your restraining order."

 

I swallowed as Ziva kept speeding her way through the traffic on our way to the office. I guess that meant my morning coffee was out of order. I kept my eyes forward and I stayed quiet the rest of the way. The tension between Ziva and I was tangible and thick, but I didn't want to admit that she was right. I wasn't safe. I hadn't been for a long time. Especially if he could find me when even I hadn't known where I was going to stay. The fearful thought of him having me followed had a lump forming in my throat, choking me. We pulled into a spot and were met by Tony carrying the daisy in an evidence bag. The two of them were quiet as we made our way inside and up to our floor. I noticed that they stayed on either side of me, never deviating. As we rounded the corner, McGee intercepted us.

 

"Gibbs is looking for you, Olivia. He wants to talk to you about something." I glanced at Ziva and she answered before I could even think of what to say.

 

"Where is he, McGee? We need to talk to him too."

 

"Conference room. Is there something I need to know about?" His eyes were on me, but I didn't say anything. 

 

"Not yet, McCurious. We'll let you know as soon as we know something." 

 

Ziva and Tony began leading me away to the conference room, but I stopped and turned. I sighed and let my head fall slightly. They all might as well know what's going on.

 

"McGee, are you coming? You should probably be there too." 

 

"Are you sure?" Ziva was cautious, but something in her voice sounded relieved.

 

"Yeah, everyone might as well be in the loop." I began walking away towards the conference room. The three of them were hurrying along behind me. When I opened the door, I found Gibbs sitting in a chair with two cups of coffee from the diner. He turned and motioned me inside, but seemed surprised at the rest of them standing behind me.

 

"I just needed Olivia, not the entire cavalry. What's going on?" Ziva ushered me to a chair making me sit down. 

 

"Olivia has a problem, Gibbs." Tony tossed the daisy onto the table as the rest of them took seats. Gibbs picked it up and inspected it before he looked at the us. I cleared my throat and stared back at him.

 

"About a year and a half ago, I met this man and was with him for a year -" Gibbs held up a hand and pointed at the flower.

 

"Are you telling me that he left this for you?" My voice caught in my throat as gaped at him.

 

"H-How do you know about him?" Gibbs slid a file in front of me. I opened it and read the first line. It was a copy of the police report my mother and I had filed. I slapped it shut and glared at him. I felt slight anger swell in my chest. I thought Vance was going to keep this to himself.

 

"Olivia, why weren't we informed of this?" I inhaled deeply through my nose as I began gathering my hair into a bun. 

 

"It had been handled and I have been working on moving past it. I didn't think it was necessary and I didn't want you to deny me my internship because you thought I couldn't handle it. I can handle it, Gibbs. I'm handling it." My chest was gently heaving as I left the room in a state of silence. Gibbs' face was unreadable as he looked at me. I felt my hands clench in my lap as I didn't break eye contact with him. He began to tap a finger on the file.

 

"This wouldn't have made me change my mind. I allowed you to work with us because I was asked to see what kind of agent you could be. You shouldn't have kept this from me. I need a team that can be honest with me, people I can trust."

 

"Trust goes both ways. I knew very little about you, and I wanted to see for myself if I could trust you." I quirked my brow and immediately wished I could take my words back. None of them had really given me a reason to think that I couldn't trust them. Gibbs' eyes flashed, but all he did was nod. He and I stared each other down for another minute before he leaned back.

 

"I need you to tell me about the flower. What does it mean?" He pulled out a notebook and his pen. I glanced back to Ziva, who nodded her head slightly in encouragement. I took a shaky breath.

 

"When I was with him, um Liam, any time we would get into an . . . argument to apologize he would always bring me daisies. Sometimes a bouquet of them and sometimes just a single one. Even with the restraining order I have been receiving them, but they were always delivered by a flower shop. I had hoped moving to D.C. would help and I don't know how he found me considering even I didn't know where I was going to stay." I paused and clenched my fists tighter, my nails digging into my palm. I felt Ziva place a hand on my shoulder.

 

"Gibbs, we found this flower waiting on her windshield underneath the wiper blade. This wasn't done by a delivery service." Her voice was quiet as it gained Gibbs' attention. 

 

"Okay. Olivia, are you okay with the rest of the team knowing the full story?"

 

I felt fear grip me tightly and soon I felt someone trying to unfurl my hands. I looked over to find it was Ziva. She was looking at me softly, and it began to ease my fear. 

 

"It would really help us to know so we can keep you safe, Olivia. Let us help you." Her eyes were pleading with me and I glanced at McGee and Tony to find them with encouraging faces. They really wanted to help. They didn't want to try to cover this up. I turned back to Gibbs, nodding. Gibbs slid the file over to McGee and Tony.

 

"Go over this. Look into it, but keep our current case the priority. Take the flower to Abby, see if she can get anything from it." The two of them nodded and gave my shoulder a gentle squeeze before leaving the conference room. Once the door was firmly shut, Gibbs spoke again,

 

"Liam MacHurin is a well known public figure."

 

"He is." I felt as if I was going to be sick and before I knew it I was beginning to heave. I panicked, looking for the nearest trash can when one was placed in my hands. I felt someone place their hand on the back of my neck softly, another hand rubbing my back. Luckily, I didn't have much to hack up due to us not being able to grab breakfast. Gibbs' voice was in my ear, his hand now smoothing my hair on the top of my head.

 

"Easy does it. Ziva, go grab her a lemon-lime soda from the machine maybe see if they have some crackers." I felt Ziva move, but Gibbs stayed right next to me. I kept my head over the trash bin. I didn't want to see Gibbs' face. I heard the opening of a soda can and it was placed on the table for me to take. Gibbs unfurled my death grip that I had on the trash bin and placed it back on the floor. 

 

"You need to eat this and take small sips of this." He placed a cracker in one hand and the soda in the other. He stood and his hand ghosted over the back of my neck before he headed for the door.

 

"We'll talk about this later. We'll take it slow. Finish that - slowly. When you're ready come to the bull pen." He left Ziva and I alone, but I didn't want to meet her eyes. I sighed and began nibbling on the cracker.

 

"Are you feeling okay?"

 

"I'm kind of glad we skipped breakfast or else that would have been a lot worse."

 

"True, but you know that's not what I mean." I sipped on the soda before finally meeting Ziva's eyes.

 

"Ever since this happened and my mom got me out of it - all that's ever been done is pushing it down and not talking about it. Mom, as much as I love her, she hated talking about what happened. It's not that she didn't care. She figured that it was over and that we just needed to move on. "

 

"So, you haven't actually talked about this? With anyone?"

 

"Nope. I've found it's better if I just don't talk." I finished off the first cracker as Ziva let out a laugh. There was something that crossed over her face, but it was gone before I could make it out. Her lips pursed as our eyes locked.

 

"Grab the rest of your soda. Let's go see the others." I shoved another cracker in my mouth before following her out of the conference room.

 

As we rounded on the bull pen, I dropped my bag at my desk before I was met by Gibbs. I quickly brought the soda can back up to my lips, taking a small sip. His eyes were narrowed, but he stepped to the side.

 

"What are we looking into?" I turned waiting for orders from Gibbs.

 

"Same as yesterday. We look through the emails and the girls' paper trails." He handed me a stack of papers and pointed me to my chair. I gave him a small salute before turning back around. He stopped me with a hand on my shoulder. He made me face him and I had my eyebrow raised when he held up more crackers and a spare soda.

 

"You mean, I can't go to the break room and get something else to eat?" Gibbs smirked and backed away from me.

 

"Nope, not yet."

 

I rolled my eyes before going to my desk and sitting down. I grabbed a highlighter and got to work. I glanced at the packet of crackers and soda, sighing. I opened them, hoping the sound of crinkling plastic and the crisp crack from the can would appease Gibbs. I settled in and began reading, marking whatever I thought was important enough to come back to later. When I finished the most recent pack of crackers, another pack landed on my desk. I looked up to find Tony walking back to his desk. I opened the crackers and got back to work. This process went on for about four more packs of crackers. When the next pack landed next to my elbow. Growling, I stood picking it up and spun around.

 

"Can we please cut it out with the crackers?" I made three of them stop and look up at me, but Gibbs just smirked. He held up his finger and pointed to the pack in my hand.

 

"Last one."

 

I huffed before I opened the pack and shoved one of them in my mouth, flopping back down into my seat. I heard sniggers come from Tony's desk followed by a small 'ow'. I rolled my eyes, but began reading regardless. 

 

After around another hour or so, I was beginning to grow frustrated. I tossed my highlighter onto my desk, leaning back in my chair. All I could hear from behind me was the rustling of papers along with the occasional tacking of keyboards. I ran my hands over my face before standing up. When I turned around I was met with Gibbs leaning on the partition with an eyebrow raised. I jumped lightly before looking up at him.

 

"Something wrong?"

 

"I need to move." Gibbs' head leaned back a little before he began moving, gesturing for me to follow. I wasted no time in chasing after him, we headed for the elevator.

 

"Where are we going?" He didn't say anything as he pressed the number taking us down to the lobby. I leaned against the wall, tapping my finger lightly on the railing along the wall. I stayed close to Gibbs as we made our way out to the parking lot. Frowning, I followed him to one of the squad cars. I slowed down as he opened the door.

 

"Gibbs, did I need my bag?" I threw a thumb back over my shoulder gesturing to the building.

 

"Nope, come on." He slid in and started the car making me run the rest of the way before crawling in. My eyebrow raised when Gibbs didn't immediately begin driving.

 

"Umm, are we going to go?" I turned to find him glancing at me, his own eyebrow raised. 

 

"Seatbelt." 

 

"Oh." I pulled the belt over my body as heat flooded my face. Once Gibbs heard the click he began pulling out of the parking spot. I looked out the window as we left the naval base my mind racing. There could be a number of reasons why Gibbs wanted to go for a drive. Granted, this wasn't exactly what I had meant when I said I needed to move. The two of us kept quiet, which was kind of nice. I was surprised to find us pulling into a spot at the diner. I groaned internally, I didn't have my wallet on me. He turned the car off and motioned for me to follow. I got out of the car quickly, but didn't get much farther.

 

"Gibbs, what are we doing?"

 

"Do you want something to eat other than crackers or not, Williams?" I bit my lip as Gibbs walked into the diner without me. Giving in, I hurried to catch up. When I made it inside I found him in a booth near the back. As I slid in opposite him, I grimaced.

 

"Gibbs, my wallet is back in my bag at NCIS. If I would've known where we were going I would've grabbed it." Gibbs was interrupted by my new favorite waitress, Shiree.

 

"I wasn't expecting to see you so soon today, Gibbs. Oh hello again," She smiled at me as she held her notepad at the ready, "What can I get for you two today?"

 

Gibbs looked at me expectantly, so I glanced over the menu quickly.

 

"Um, curly fries and a black coffee, please?" I noticed Gibbs roll his eyes as he collected both menus to hand over to Shiree.

 

"I'll have my usual, Shiree and she'll also have a sandwich to go with her fries and coffee." Shiree gave us both a smile before bustling away. I turned to Gibbs, my mouth pursed.

 

"I was fine with just the fries, Gibbs."

 

Gibbs didn't say anything just kept looking at me. Well, two could play at that game. I folded my hands in my lap as I stared back at him. We stayed like that until our food came and Shiree looked between the two of us as she slid our check over to Gibbs.

 

"You two let me know if you need anything." She smiled and walked away leaving us alone once more. Gibbs settled in and began eating his club sandwich. I watched him for a moment until he looked up at me.

 

"Are you going to eat?"

 

"Gibbs, what are you doing? What are we doing here?"

 

"I figured we could talk a little bit and you need to eat something other than crackers." I narrowed my eyes at him  before picking up one of my fries. I took a small bite and swallowed, but there was a lump forming in my throat. Clearing my throat, I adjusted my body in my seat.

 

"What do you want to talk about?" Gibbs wiped his hands on a napkin before taking a slow sip of his coffee.

 

"How about this? You tell me something you're comfortable with talking about." I grumbled as I ate a few more fries, but the pit of my stomach practically dropped. I knew what he wanted to talk about. 

 

"Like what? Gibbs, I can't talk about  _him_ here." Before I could stop myself I glanced around the diner, inspecting all of the mid-morning lull. His fingers snapped in front of my eyes.

 

"Hey, hey look at me. We don't have to talk about him. Not yet." I nodded as I picked up another fry. I closed my eyes, trying to keep calm. Gibbs' voice was soft as he spoke again,

 

"Why don't you tell me a little more about your mom?"

 

"Uh, we used to live here in D.C. until I was about five or six. Then James got a better job offer in Norfolk and my life was uprooted."

 

"It doesn't sound like you got along with him very well." I rolled my eyes and scoffed.

 

"I used to think the world of him when I was younger, but after we moved to Norfolk he was different. I realized he wasn't that great the older I got. Him and mom used to argue a lot. Eventually, they got divorced, but it wasn't until after I had graduated high school." I paused and took a sip of my coffee, it was really good.

 

"Does he know about your mom?"

 

"He's been dead for a year. Honestly, even if he was alive when mom got sick I don't know if he would've cared. My mom deserved better than what she had been dealt. Looking back, I feel like her marriage to James had been one of convenience. It's times like this that I wish she would've tried to work things out with my birth father. Then maybe things would've been different."

 

"Maybe." Gibbs shrugged as he took another bite of his sandwich. I leaned against the back of the booth and stared out the window. My stomach growled, but I ignored it, wrapping my hands around myself.

 

"You should eat, we'll have to go back soon." I glanced at him digging into his food before I finally followed suit. Things were quiet again, but each time I looked at him, Gibbs simply looked thoughtful.                                                                                                                                                                                                          

 "I didn't realize Ziva and Tony were together. I was a little shocked when she took me to their apartment."

 

"They've been together for a couple years now." I groaned as I finished off one half of my sandwich.

 

"I've got to find an apartment soon then." Gibbs chuckled, which shocked me, I don't think I've heard him laugh. 

 

"You didn't think to find an apartment before you took on the internship?"

 

"When I was offered the internship mom had just passed. A big portion of my time was spent trying to figure out what to do with all of her stuff. Then once it was time for me to be in D.C. I hadn't had the opportunity to even consider looking for one." 

 

I sighed as Gibbs pulled his wallet out of his pocket and tossed money down on table with the check. Shiree appeared with two coffees to go as I moved to stand. 

 

"Don't go leaving without these. I imagine you're going to need it." Gibbs smiled before placing a soft kiss on Shiree's cheek, who slapped his arm.

 

"You're the best, Shiree. Thank you." 

 

I stood up, waving goodbye to Shiree, and followed Gibbs out of the diner. We got back in the car when Gibbs didn't pull out of the parking spot, I had to keep myself from rolling my eyes. I clicked my seatbelt into place and he began to move.

 

"You know, my mom used to do the same thing." I stared out the window as we began weaving our way through traffic. 

 

"Did she now?"

 

"Yeah, she would practically glare at me until I would put my seatbelt on." Gibbs stayed quiet as I glanced over at him and I sighed. 

 

* * *

 

After we went through security, I stood by the elevator and sipped my coffee watching Gibbs talk to one of the security team. I pressed the button as he walked toward me. Once the doors were closed I turned to him.

 

"Thank you by the way. For the food." He sipped his coffee as we stepped out and made our way over to the bull pen. He simply nodded, saying nothing. The others were gathered around one of the flat screens. When I looked at it I felt my stomach drop. McGee jumped slightly when he realized I was standing next to him before taking Liam's picture down. Gibbs continued to his desk, sitting down.

 

"What've we got?" 

 

"The conversations between Harlow and Greene are harmless. They seemed to be in a very loving and healthy relationship until the letters showed up. They may have changed how they kept in touch because the emails come to an abrupt end." Ziva ran a hand through her hair as she finished speaking.

 

"McGee, did you ever get the threat traced?"

 

"I've tried everything I can think of, but I've come up with nothing. Maybe Abby can help me."

 

"Go." McGee nodded before walking away quickly. Gibbs walked around his desk to stand next to us by the flat screen. 

 

"I talked to Greene's mother and she said that they spoke about her relationship with Harlow at length, but she had no clue about the threatening email." Tony stared at the file in his hand as he pressed the button on the controller. I felt the breath leave my body as I stared at the pictures up on the screen. Photos taken at the hospital by the police after I had given my statement, my face barely recognizable. The room began to tilt and I reached out to grip the thing closest to me to keep myself from falling. 

 

"Whoa, easy. Tony grab a chair." The pictures were taken off the screen as Ziva ripped the controller from Tony's hand, but they were still flashing in front of my eyes.

 

"Boss, I didn't know those were queued up." A fearful noise ripped from my throat as I felt myself falling back.

 

"Shh, you're okay." 

 

"Do you want me to get Ducky?" My breathing sounded funny in my ears and everyone sounded as if they were all in a tunnel. I kept trying to look for them, a face to focus on, but all I could see were those pictures.  

 

"No not yet, let's get her calm first." Finally, Gibbs' face was in front of my own. His eyes becoming my sole focal point. His face began to distort and I began to grip whatever I was clinging to tighter. I jumped as something warm touched my face.

 

"Gibbs," My voice bubbled from my lips, "Not safe." 

 

"What do you mean not safe?" I began shaking my head and trying to stand, but Gibbs placed a firm hand on my shoulder. My eyes began looking around the room. It was too open with too many people. 

 

"I need to move." I know I was mumbling now, but Gibbs understood. The room was still slanted, but he pulled me to my feet, keeping me steady. Things were quiet for a moment and suddenly we were moving.

 

"Okay, let's move."

 

I kept my head down as I stayed tucked in close to Gibbs' side. It wasn't long before we were in the elevator. The solitude of the small metal box was slightly comforting as I heard the clicking of a button being pushed. The whirring of the machinery was loud in my ears and I tucked my chin closer to my chest. A hand was pressed against the back of my neck gently as I was led out of the elevator once we reached our destination. The smell of disinfectant reached my nose and shudder ran down my back.

 

"Duck?"

 

"Here's a chair, Jethro." 

 

I looked up and found Ducky standing near his desk with a pot of tea. The only light in the room was coming from a couple lamps. Gibbs placed me in the nearest chair as Ducky took a seat opposite me. My breathing was growing less erratic as I watched Ducky pour two cups of tea, which was soothing. He placed a cup in my hands, his own gentle as he made sure I had a decent grip.

 

"Olivia, can you take a deep breath for me?" I watched as he began to breathe deeply and I found myself following suit. We did this for a while and slowly I was calm enough to take a sip of my still warm tea. Shudders took over my body and I cuddled closer trying to pull warmth from my cup. I jumped lightly as I felt something being placed over my shoulders. Turning my head, I found Gibbs wrapping his blazer around me. 

 

"How do you feel?" Ducky's lilting voice recaptured my attention.

 

"Better. Thank you." My voice was tight as I felt his eyes rove over my face. Anger flushed through me replacing any fear left in me. I sat my cup down and pushed myself out of my chair, shrugging out of Gibbs' blazer. Pulling my hair down from it's bun, I ruffled it and massaged my scalp. 

 

"Actually, I'm not. I'm not okay at all. How can so much as a  _picture_ or a stupid flower have so much control over me? How can I allow it to have this much control?" I threw my hands in the air before letting them flop to my sides. The room grew overbearingly quiet. Gibbs was looking at me, but his expression was unreadable. Ducky on the other hand had so much empathy covering his face. My shoulders deflated as weariness overtook me again, nudging the anger to the side. 

 

"Sit down." I glanced back over at Gibbs as he gestured to the chair I had been occupying. When I didn't move he quirked an eyebrow and pointed at the chair again. I sat back down, sighing. Before anyone else could say anything the autopsy doors opened and I was being pulled up into a hug.

 

"Oh my God, how are you feeling? Ziva told me what happened and I had to come check on you. Do you need anything?" I felt the air knocked out of me as Abby's arms wrapped themselves around my neck.

 

"Abs, she needs to breathe." Abby seemed to jump back as if she had been electrocuted and hid her hands behind her back. I felt the corners of my mouth twitch up a little.

 

"I'm good, Abby. Don't worry." I made myself look her in the eyes, but there was a look on her face that told me she could see right through me.

 

"No, you're not and you need to know that that is okay." Her hands found a place on my shoulders as she looked at me. My chest felt tight and I couldn't look at her anymore. She let me go and rounded on Gibbs, but he held a hand up, stopping her.

 

"We'll talk later. Go on." Abby looked like there was a lot more that she wanted to say, but she nodded, rubbed my arm, and left the room. I sat back down on my chair and waited for one of them to start speaking. I was slightly relieved when Ducky was the first to open his mouth.

 

"You asked how such simple things have a hold over you, and it makes me feel the need to ask if you've ever talked about this with anyone." I shifted in my seat as I took another sip of my tea. I could feel Gibbs' eyes on me, burning a hole in the back of my head.

 

"No, I haven't." I kept my voice quiet as I allowed my gaze to veer away from him.

 

"Not even with your mother?" I sighed, it seemed as if we were going to do this now then. I rolled my eyes slightly.

 

"When his lawyers agreed to the restraining order they didn't want it to get out to the world. They all came to the agreement that nothing would be stated on the record and it was swept under the rug. Mom decided that we should do the same to move on." I tried to clear my throat and nearly choked. I quickly grabbed my tea for comfort. I could hear Gibbs shuffling his feet behind me.

 

"What can you tell me about the flowers?"

 

"It had been a few months before the first one showed up. Mom had just gotten sick and I had been staying with her since everything happened. We had just gotten back from a chemo appointment and she was napping while I made something for lunch. When I answered the door and saw the flowers I knew he wasn't going to give up. I never told mom about them."

 

"He would give you the flowers as an apology?"

 

"Yes. Anytime we would fight or he would -" My words choked off and Ducky held up a hand.

 

"It's okay. You don't have to say it." My breath rattled in my chest as I nodded. I took a few minutes to just breathe and calm myself down again. 

 

"Daisies used to be my favorite flower. It was something me and mom shared. As a kid I can remember there always being a vase of daisies in the middle of the dining room table and on the table just as you walked through the front door," I cut myself off as my words began to feel too large coming out of my mouth. Ducky was waiting for me to continue, but I shook my head.

 

"Olivia, how did it make you feel when your mother didn't want to discuss what you had been through?"

 

"Angry, but it was nothing new for her. It's not the first thing she's refused to talk about." 

 

"What else did she refuse to talk about?"

 

"My dad. It was the only other thing she was most unwilling to talk about. Except when she would slip up and tell me small pieces, but that mostly didn't happen until she got sick." 

 

"Do you know much about your birth father?"

 

"Not really. I know that he was an NCIS agent, said he was in the military, that I supposedly have his hair and the shape of his eyes, and - this she told me with absolute clarity even though she was about to pass out from exhaustion after a particularly nasty round of chemo - she said that I reminded her a lot of him. It amazed her that even though I had never met the man, had zero contact with him, I had so many of his small quirks and qualities." 

 

"Have you ever thought about trying to find your father?" I looked at Ducky for a moment before shaking my head.

 

"No."

 

"Why not?"

 

"I'm not sure. Besides, even if I did find him I don't know what I would do. I know nothing about the man." I shrugged before finishing my tea. My eyelids were feeling a little heavy and I knew I needed to move. 

 

"Thank you for the tea, Ducky, but I think I need to find something to do." I glanced behind me to look at Gibbs, who was gazing at me with something strange in his eye. He gave me a slight nod and I stood, straightening my clothes. As I moved to leave autopsy, he grabbed my arm pulling me back.

 

"Hold on. Look at me. If you start to feel uncomfortable you tell someone. We're here to help you and I know from experience that bottling everything up doesn't work. My team - they're good people. Trustworthy." I kept my eye contact with Gibbs before nodding. 

 

"Okay, I will."

 

"Also, stick to the current case. I don't want you near MacHurin's file. Do you understand?" Gibbs' voice was strangely soft as he let my arm go. 

 

"Okay." He nodded at the door and I left as quickly as I could.

 

**\- Gibbs' POV -**

 

 I waited for the doors to close completely behind Olivia before I turned to Ducky, my eyes narrowed.

 

"What the hell was that?"

 

"Jethro, it was a simple question. I wasn't suggesting anything."

 

"Duck, if she is anything like her mother this is going to stick in her mind, and she's not going to let up until she finds answers."

 

"Sounds to me as if she gets that from both sides." Ducky raised his brows before he began cleaning up everything. I rolled my eyes before leaving autopsy and heading to Abby's lab. 

 

As I walked through the door I noticed that it was quiet. I found Abby standing and staring at her computer. I stood there watching her cock her head to the side. 

 

"What've ya got, Abs?"

 

"The daisy isn't anything special. Run of the mill." Abby turned to face me, a weird look on her face. I frowned and gestured around the room.

 

"What's wrong? You're not playing music."

 

"It's nothing. Which is also what I have for you now. I don't have anything new. Tracing the flower to a certain shop is pretty much impossible, and until you give me something new to work with for our current case there isn't anything else I can do with that." I nodded as I searched Abby's face for something to give away how she was actually feeling. When I couldn't place my finger on it I scratched the back of my head.

 

"There is something. Can you check to find out if Olivia has any living relatives?" There was a mulish set to Abby's mouth as she crossed her arms over her chest.

 

"You mean, someone besides you?" I glared at her as I refused to say anything. Abby rolled her eyes before turning to her computer and typing quickly. I moved closer to peer at the screen.

 

"I'm not finding anyone, Gibbs." She sighed as she threw it all up on the big screen for me to look at. My eyes scanned over everything. Cass's mom and dad were both gone, she never had any siblings, and any other relatives were all gone. I rubbed my face roughly as I turned away from the screen. There was a pinging behind me as Abby looked at me guiltily, but stubbornly. 

 

"Abby, tell me that you didn't." My jaw tightened as she moved to stand in front of me. 

 

"I can't do that. Gibbs, she needs family. She's still young."

 

"She's twenty four, Abby." 

 

"That doesn't matter!" 

 

My chest was heaving as we stared each other down. Her arms were crossed over her chest again and her eyes were hard. After a moment, her hands were on my shoulders and forcing me to turn around to look at the screen. My throat grew tight as I looked at both my picture and Olivia's side by side. I didn't even want to know when Abby had found the time to get a hold of Olivia's DNA. We were a match.

 

 


	3. Three

**\- Gibbs' POV -**

 

"Gibbs, are you okay?" Abby's voice was soft as she stood next to me. I didn't know what I was feeling and I for damn sure didn't know if I was okay. Cass's face kept flashing through my mind from the last few weeks we had been together. There were so many things that she had done and said that suddenly made sense. My phone began to vibrate in my pocket and I moved quickly to answer it.

 

"This is Gibbs." My stomach dropped and my mouth grew dry. There was another body. Another body who would look a little too much like Olivia.

 

"Yeah, I'm on my way." I hung up the phone and wrenched my eyes away from the screen. Abby was staring at me, her eyes wide.

 

"Another victim?"

 

"Abby, don't tell anyone about this. Especially, do not tell Olivia."

 

She nodded quickly and moved around to her computer. After a few soft taps the images on the screen were gone. I made my way out of the lab and headed upstairs. This was going to be rough.

 

**\- Olivia's POV -**

 

"C'mon Ziva, this apartment doesn't sound that bad." I was leaning against Ziva's desk looking through a newspaper.

 

"It's in a bad part of town, Olivia. It wouldn't be worth your money."

 

"I'd be fine. Plus it's the cheapest that I've found by far. D.C. is expensive." I frowned as I kept searching as Tony spoke up,

 

"We told you that you could stay with us for as long as you needed to."

 

"I know you did and I thank you for that, but guys, seriously you need your space as a couple." Tony sighed exasperatedly, but simply shared a look with Ziva.

 

"Grab your gear!" I jumped as Gibbs came around the corner quickly before running to my desk for my bag.

 

"Where are we going, Gibbs?"

 

"There's a body on the outskirts of Norfolk. C'mon, get a move on." 

 

* * *

 

Gibbs was quiet as we made our way to the crime scene. I kept noticing Ziva glancing at the older man as she continued messing with her phone. I leaned back into the seat and stared out the window. Keeping my ears alert so I wouldn't miss anything. I heard Ziva clear her throat gently.

 

"Gibbs, is everything alright?"

 

"Yup." Ziva huffed before her phone was back in her hands. 

 

After a moment, I felt a gaze on me and I glanced up to find Gibbs looking at me in the rearview mirror. His forehead had a slight wrinkle to it, almost as if he was deep in thought. The look lasted no longer than a few seconds, but I definitely caught it. I shook my head and began to unbuckle my seatbelt as we pulled up to the crime scene. Gibbs was out of the car faster than both Ziva and I. She looked at me as we crawled out of the car and I shrugged. We moved to follow him as he approached the body.

 

"DiNozzo, photos. McGee find out what you can. Ziva, Williams look around for evidence." He didn't look at any of us as he walked over the lead police officer with McGee. Ziva shared a look with Tony before she pulled me along with her.

 

"Is it just me or is Gibbs acting strange? I mean, I know I don't know him all that well, but he seems off."

 

"No, you are right. Something is definitely wrong, but he doesn't seem to wish to talk about it."

 

"Does he do that a lot?" I kept my eyes on the ground as I searched carefully.

 

"Occasionally. When it's something he needs time to think about. I suppose this is one of those times." She mumbled that last bit under her breath and I tried to keep myself from laughing. Things were quiet with us for quite awhile before I cleared my throat.

 

"I get why he does it though. Gibbs, I mean."

 

"What do you mean?" 

 

"Him using the silence to mull things over for awhile. I do it too. It used to drive my mom nuts when I did." 

 

"You two are a lot alike."

 

"Who? Me and Gibbs? No way." I shook my head as Ziva chuckled, but didn't say anything. We began to move toward another section of the bushes and I began gnawing at my bottom lip. I sighed as Ducky's words crossed through my mind. I hadn't thought about looking for my father in years. Not since it had caused so many fights with my mom. Maybe it was time for me to start looking again. Find out all the things she never told me. 

 

We found ourselves back near the body where Ducky was leaning over the girl. I looked her over as we stood close by. Her right leg was bent out of shape this time, but it was her face that caught my attention the most. The amount of bruising and swelling made it near impossible for her to be recognized as a person. I felt a lump catch in my throat. There was a hand placed against my lower back as Ducky and Palmer began to place her in a body bag. My eyes moved away from her as they zipped the bag closed and found Gibbs staring at me again. 

 

"Ziva, you and Williams ride back with DiNozzo and McGee. I've got something I need to take care of." 

 

We stood there for a few moments before we all crawled into the car and pulled away. I waited to see if any of them were going to say anything, but none of them did. The ride back was mostly quiet except for Ziva and Tony whispering fervently in the front of the car. I looked over at McGee, but he was typing away at something on his phone. I couldn't wait to be back at NCIS. I had some questions for Ducky, and maybe a few for Abby. I leaned my head back against the seat and stared out the window.

 

"Olivia, wake up." I crinkled my nose as I sat up, cracking my eyes open to look for the source of the voice. I found DiNozzo standing outside my open door, smirking slightly. My body sat up a little more erect as I realized where I was.

 

"I'm so sorry." I gripped my backpack and scrambled out of the car, much to Tony's amusement. 

 

"Just don't let Gibbs catch you falling asleep on the job. C'mon, let's get inside." I nodded and shut the door behind me, moving quickly to keep up with his long legs. As we made our way up to our floor, I stopped Tony just outside the elevator.

 

"Hey, I was wondering if I could go talk to Ducky about something." 

 

"I don't think now is a good time." Tony glanced behind him to our bullpen as he scratched the back of his neck. I dropped my eyes to the floor, shuffling my feet as I nodded.

 

"Okay, I can go later." I walked past him quickly, going to my desk. I glanced at Gibbs' desk noticing that he still wasn't with us. 

 

"Since Gibbs still isn't back, let's go over everything we know about our most recent victim, Petty Officer Felicia Stanton. Try to find a connection between her, Greene, and Harlow. Look into everything." Tony's voice boomed as he sat at his desk. I sat down in my chair and unlocked my computer. I began running searches on our newest petty officer, going through her social media. I tried to avoid looking at her photos, tried to avoid the fact that we shared enough similar features. After about an hour, I stopped and stretched my body before walking over to Ziva's desk.

 

"I'm going to go get a coffee, do any of you want anything?" 

 

"No, but you should make it quick. Have you found anything out of the ordinary?"

 

"Not yet. I've scoured all of her social media, but just like our other petty officers she seems to lead just a normal life. She went to work, went home, she had a schnauzer puppy named Bobby, and she enjoyed going out most Fridays with her friends." Ziva nodded and went back to her paperwork. I figured that was my indication to go get my coffee.

 

I made my way to the breakroom and my phone began to ring in my pocket. The corners of my mouth turned down as the unknown number popped up. Shrugging, I denied the call thinking that if it was actually important then they would leave a voicemail. I moved into the breakroom, grabbing a paper coffee cup. I was about to take a drink when my phone began to ring again. My brow furrowed as I looked at the same unknown number on the screen. I moved into the hallway and bit my lip as I slid my thumb across the screen to accept the call.

 

"Hello."

 

 _"Livvy."_   My body froze for a moment as his voice came through the speaker. I didn't understand, I had changed my number after getting the restraining order. My throat constricted as I tried to swallow. I couldn't - and didn't want to - say anything. My hand clenched a little too tightly around my coffee cup.

 

 _"C'mon Livvy, talk to me. I would like to hear your voice again, doll. Did you get my present? I know they're your favorite."_   Liam chuckled softly over the line, and shivers ran down my spine. I felt my mouth open to respond, but nothing came out. 

 

 _"Answer me, Olivia. You know I hate it when you don't answer me."_ His voice became sharp and I jumped, sloshing coffee over my hand.

 

"Y-yes."

 

 _"There's my good girl."_   I cleared my throat as best as I could before straightening my back. He didn't control me anymore. I shook my head to clear it and steeled my voice.

 

"What do you want, Liam?"

 

" _To hear your voice. I miss you, doll. How long are you going to keep up this silly charade?"_

 

"It's not a charade, Liam. I'm not coming back. I don't belong to you. Do not call me again. Stay away from me."

 

Before he could speak again I ended the call. I looked down at the now almost empty coffee cup in my hand and tossed it in the nearest trash can. My feet felt like lead weights as I forced my way to the restroom to clean myself up. I had coffee droplets on the front of my shirt and my hand was coated. Flipping the tap on, I pumped soap in my hand and got to work. As I scrubbed at the drops on my shirt, I realized that I wasn't going to get anywhere with it. I gave up and made my way back to the bull pen only to have my phone begin ringing as I got closer. Ziva's name came across the screen. I came up next to Tony and Ziva as I denied the call.

 

"Why were you calling me?" She spun on her toes and I saw her tense body relax. 

 

"Where have you been? I thought you were just going for coffee in the break room." She moved closer and I took a step back, my eyes wide. I heard Tony on his phone telling McGee that they had found me.

 

"I did." Ziva's eyes narrowed as she scrutinized me. The lack of a coffee cup in my hand didn't help my case very much.

 

"Where's your coffee and why is your shirt wet?" I grimaced lightly. I hadn't expected them to freak out like this. I wasn't exactly accustomed to all of the worry.

 

"I, uh, got coffee on it. I went to the bathroom to try and wash it out." McGee came back around the corner with a relieved look on his face as his eyes landed on me. Seeing McGee made me wonder if he could find out how Liam got my new number. I licked my lips as I adjusted my stance, pulling my phone out of my pocket.

 

"Actually, something else happened. Liam just called me." 

 

"What?" Tony and Ziva spoke at the same time as they shared a glance with McGee.

 

"Yeah, an unknown number came up on my phone and I decided that if it was important they'd leave a message so I denied it. Once I had my coffee though the same number popped up so I answered it, and it was him. I have no idea how he got my number. I changed it after everything happened." Tony looked unhappy as he pulled out his own phone.

 

"I'm calling Gibbs. McGee, get the number off her phone and see if you can trace it. If it is his then he's violating his restriction." McGee held out his hand and I unlocked my phone, handing it over.

 

"It should be the number just below Ziva's last call." He nodded and moved to his computer, a determined and anxious look on his face. Ziva placed a hand on my shoulder.

 

"Are you okay?"

 

"As good as I can be I guess. I - I don't really know."

 

"Can you write down everything he said for me?"

 

"Um, sure." Ziva handed me a pen and notepad as Tony came back to our sides.

 

"Gibbs is on his way back. He said we keep working the current case, but let Tim trace the number." 

 

"I'm having Olivia write it all down just so we have it on the record. I'll get back to going through Petty Officer Stanton's emails." Tony nodded and the two of them moved to their desks leaving me standing there alone with the notepad and pen at my sides. It took me a moment, but I made my feet move to take me back to my desk to write everything down. I had just finished up when I heard Gibbs' voice.

 

"What do we have with our current case first?" We all popped up and joined him in front of the screen as Tony clicked the proper button.

 

"Petty Officer Felicia May Stanton, age 23 born and raised in Norfolk, Virginia. She shared a home with her parents and she was getting ready for her next deployment in two weeks." 

 

"All of her COs and fellow officers had nothing, but decent things to say about her. She worked diligently, and she was usually the first to arrive and last to leave during the work day." Ziva ruffled her papers as McGee took over.

 

"So far we have no connection to our other two victims, however, one difference that I've noticed between the three of them is that Petty Officer Stanton was far more open with her sexuality and who she was."

 

"Did you find a threatening email yet?"

 

"Not as of yet, but I still have a few weeks to go through. I did find a police report that may be worth looking in to. It was a sexual harassment suit filed before she became a petty officer."

 

"Okay," Gibbs turned to me finally, "Explain to me what happened." 

 

"He called me as I was getting a coffee. I have no idea he got my new number, but Ziva had me write down everything from the conversation." I handed him my statement and his eyes ran over it quickly.

 

"McGee, did you trace the number?"

 

"I tried, boss. It came up a dead end. Most likely used a burner phone or something." I crossed my arms over my chest as I turned to him.

 

"Do you know how he would've gotten my new number?" 

 

"He may have connections somewhere that we didn't realize he had." I clenched my jaw as I ran a hand through my hair roughly. Gibbs' eyes were on me as he stood there thinking.

 

"Get back to the case. McGee try to find out what connections MacHurin could have. I need to know more about him." Gibbs motioned for me to follow him. I walked behind him closely as we made our way up the stairs. I sighed internally knowing that since Gibbs wanted answers, he would go to someone who could give them to him. Vance would have to have my complete approval, but at this point I don't think with Gibbs running the show that I had much of a choice. 

 

Gibbs knocked on the door completely bypassing the secretary and opened the door before Vance even had a chance to answer. I sent an apologetic look to the secretary before following him through the door. Vance looked up from his computer with a slight frown on his face.

 

"What can I do for you, agent Gibbs? Hello, Ms. Williams." I sent him a wave, but Gibbs jumped right in.

 

"What can you tell me about Liam MacHurin?" Vance's eyes glanced between the two of us.

 

"I'm not sure what you mean." Gibbs kept his face passive as he practically shoved my statement in front of Vance, who scanned his eyes over it. Vance looked at me after he finished, questions in his eyes.

 

"When did this conversation happen?"

 

"Just a little while ago." Vance rubbed his face and sat the sheet of paper among the files on his desk. He sat down and clasped his hands together in front of him.

 

"Gibbs, did you know that I knew Ms. Williams' father, James? We used to go to school together. Jackie and Cassandra were close friends at one point as well. When Olivia applied for this internship, I knew that she would do well on your team."

 

"Leon, that's not what I'm asking you." There was something in Vance's eyes that I couldn't read, but Gibbs obviously could. 

 

"When everything happened with MacHurin, I couldn't touch him. My position here made that practically impossible. However, I did do as much digging as I could. The man has connections everywhere, he's quite wealthy and influential. I've only ever met him a few times in a social setting and he is a class A control freak, but that's a personal opinion." Vance stood after pausing a moment in thought, and walked to a file cabinet along the wall. He came back to stand next to Gibbs with a large file in his hands. I glanced between the two of them unable to read what either of them were conveying to each other. I folded my arms across my chest and leaned against Leon's desk. It earned me a strange look from the man, but he didn't say anything. Even though I couldn't read them, I knew there was a secret between the two. 

 

"Olivia, can you give us a moment? I have something I need to discuss with Agent Gibbs, just wait right outside with Cynthia." I nodded, but glanced at Gibbs before moving. His eyes creased slightly as I went out the door.

 

* * *

**\- Gibbs' POV -**

 

"What's on your mind, Gibbs?" 

 

"You knew didn't you." My eyes followed Vance as he walked around to sit back behind his desk. 

 

"I'm not sure I know what you mean." My eyes narrowed as I leaned forward on his desk.

 

"I think you do, Leon." Things were quiet and grew more tense as the minutes passed. Finally, he released a loud sigh, leaning back in his chair. He glanced over to the door before pressing a button on one of his remotes, locking down the room.

 

"Cassandra would tell Jackie things that she didn't tell anyone else. Jackie kept her secrets well, but when Cass died and Olivia's application ended up on my desk, Jackie felt that she had to share the biggest one with me. Who Olivia's real father was. Imagine my surprise when she told me that it was you."

 

"So, you decided to assign her to my team." My mouth was dry as Vance clasped his hands together.

 

"Yes and no. Olivia thought she was good at hiding everything from her mother, but Cass noticed some of the deliveries. She knew what they were and who they were from. Cass also knew that Olivia wanted to join NCIS and she wanted her kept safe."

 

"Cass wanted her on my team." 

 

"She always felt a little guilty about not telling you about Olivia."

 

"Yeah, well, I don't really blame her." I rubbed a hand over my face roughly. 

 

"What do you want to do about this?" Vance held up Olivia's statement in an attempt to change the subject.

 

"She needs a new number, if not a new phone. We have no idea exactly how he got his hands on her most recent one."

 

"I'll take care of it." I turned to leave when there was knocking on the door. Glancing at Leon, he pressed the button to take us off lockdown and the door burst open. Olivia came through followed by Ziva.

 

"Olivia's phone is ringing again. New unknown number." 

 

Vance got up from his seat and we began walking down to the bullpen. Olivia's phone continued ringing while it sat on McGee's desk. DiNozzo was leaning against McGee's desk, his head popping up as we rounded the corner. 

 

"It'll ring until her voicemail activates, but then it'll start ringing again, boss." I nodded, picking Olivia's phone off the desk.

 

"McGee, are you set up to try and trace the number?"

 

"All ready." Turning to Olivia, I kept my face businesslike. I held the ringing phone out to her. Her arms were crossed over her chest as she looked between me and the phone.

 

"Olivia, it has to be you that answers the phone or else he's going to hang up and we won't be able to track it. It might not even be him." I kept my voice even and encouraging. Her honey colored eyes stared up at me, but it was difficult to read what was lying behind them, even for me. She was hesitant, but she reached out to take the phone, her eyes never leaving mine. 

 

"Put it on speaker and act as normally as possible, okay?" Ziva was speaking in her ear quickly. Tony moved his chair closer, offering it to Olivia, but she shook her head. 

 

"Go ahead and answer it." She nodded as her finger slid across the screen before tapping the speaker button. 

 

"Hello."

 

 _"Livvy, you know better than to hang up on me."_ I watched as the color began to drain from Olivia's face. She glanced around the group, her eyes wide. 

 

"I-I'm sorry. I'm at work and I -"

 

 _"Come meet me for lunch."_  

 

"You know I can't do that." Olivia's voice was tight as I moved to stand behind McGee, who was typing furiously trying to trace this call back to him. Vance's eyes were set on Olivia as we all hear MacHurin take a deep breath. There was a crash on the other end of the line and Olivia jumped slightly before steeling herself.

 

_"Don't try to play these games with me, Olivia."_

 

"I'm not playing games, Liam. I have a restraining order against you." She glanced over at McGee and I. McGee motioned for her to keep going, and she took a shaky breath.

 

 _"I can take care of that, doll. You know I can. We could forget all about this whole debacle."_ Olivia cringed at the tone of his voice, and I wanted nothing more than to take the phone from her hands and give him a piece of my mind. Her mouth was gaped open as if she couldn't speak when McGee held a thumb up in signal that he had what we needed.

 

"I've got to-"

 

 _"Have you received my latest gift yet? It should've arrived by now."_   She glanced at all of us, her brow furrowed.

 

"What gift?" Just as the question came out of her mouth one of the mailroom workers pushed a cart full of daisies and stopped in front of Olivia.

 

"Olivia Williams?" Olivia simply nodded as I felt myself grit my teeth. 

 

 _"Ah, sounds like it's finally there. Anyways, doll, I've got a business meeting. I will talk to you again soon."_ He hung up quickly and Olivia let her hand fall to her side. 

 

 

"Ms. Williams, I just need you to sign for these." I rolled my eyes before going around McGee's desk and taking the clipboard, signing for the flowers myself.

 

"Where do you want me to put them?" I opened my mouth to tell him to just toss them in the trash, but Olivia's head snapped up and turned to Vance.

 

"Le- Director Vance, do you think it'd be doable to have these sent to the hospital for the patients or something? I'd hate for them to just go in the dumpster." Vance glanced over her shoulder at me with his eyebrow quirked. I shrugged my shoulders before he nodded down at her.

 

"I'll make arrangements for it. Take these back with you to the mailroom and I'll send down the orders for where they need to go soon." The worker nodded and began wheeling the cart full of flowers away. I couldn't help, but notice that Olivia's breathing evened out once the cart was out of sight.

 

"Ms. Williams, we're going to get a new phone set up with a new number so I would save what you want off your phone." She nodded at Vance as she tucked her phone in her back pocket.

 

"Gibbs, we'll talk more later?" I nodded my head before he walked away. I turned to find Ziva had pulled Olivia away, whispering to her fervently.

 

"Do we need to go grab MacHurin?" McGee and DiNozzo were looking at me expectantly, but I shook my head.

 

"We still can't touch him. We're going to keep record of everything that happens and compile it all until we get the okay. We have to do this carefully."

 

"Boss, he's violating the restraining order. He's not supposed to contact her in anyway. Surely we cou-" DiNozzo's voice was strained as he stared at me.

 

"As much as I hate it DiNozzo we have to wait until we have more than burner phone numbers. We don't have anything right now that he couldn't get out of." Tony deflated as he swallowed hard and moved back to his own desk.

 

I walked to sit behind my desk and watched Olivia closely to make sure she was okay. A small portion of me felt guilty for not telling her what I knew, so she didn't feel alone. Another part of me feared her reaction. One thing I knew for sure was that we had to do something about that smug bastard before he hurt her again.

 

 


	4. Four

**\- Olivia's POV -**

 

I groaned as I sat at my desk, my phone screen lighting up once more. I didn't know how much more of this I could take today. This was the fifth - or was it the eighth? - time that Liam has called my phone. I wanted nothing more than to turn the damn thing off, after all I had everything I needed out of it, but Gibbs wanted to make a record of how many times I was called. All I wanted to do was work on our current case, and I knew that my issues were cutting into everything we were doing. I watched my phone ring for another second before I stood gaining McGee's attention, who quirked an eyebrow.

 

"Another one?" 

 

"Unfortunately. Are you ready?" McGee nodded and I sat on the corner of his desk, sliding my thumb across to accept the call.

 

 _"It took you far too long to answer the phone, Livvy."_ A slight shiver ran down my spine and I rolled my eyes at myself. 

 

"I'm at work, Liam."

 

 _"Maybe I want you to lose your job."_ Liam chuckled softly and I sighed, but couldn't think of anything new to say. I looked over at McGee's fingers typing as fast as they could, but one hand paused to motion for me to keep the conversation going.

 

"You may want that, but I don't want that." 

 

 _"Olivia, I don't want you working, especially not there. It's far too dangerous."_ I tried not to laugh at his words, and I also tried to ignore how sincere he sounded. I swallowed hard and cleared my throat. This job may be dangerous, but I knew that he was way worse. I grit my teeth as I answered,

 

"It's not your decision." I looked up as Gibbs, Ziva, and Tony walked over. Gibbs pulled the phone away from my ear and motioned for me to turn it to speaker phone. I grimaced, but did as I was told. Ziva placed a gentle hand on my back as Liam groaned over the line.

 

 _"I'm getting really tired of you arguing with me about this. You're trying my patience, Olivia. I'm trying to tell you that things are different, love. I want to take care of you."_ I closed my eyes as the tone of his voice grew softer. A hand was stroking the back of my neck gently making me open my eyes. My throat felt tight as I struggled with words. I swallowed hard and my stomach began churning, feeling like I was going to be sick. Finally, McGee gave me the thumbs up to end the call.

 

"My boss is coming. I have to go.  _Please_ , stop calling me." I ended the call without giving him a chance to say anything else. I dropped my phone on McGee's desk and shakily stood. Avoiding everyone's eyes, I stepped around them. 

 

"I think I'm going to go check in with Ducky. See if he's discovered anything new." I didn't wait for any of them to say anything as I escaped to the elevator. As the doors closed, a few tears began to roll down my cheeks. I flipped the switch to make the elevator stop and wiped my eyes. Anger bubbled up inside of my chest and I wanted nothing more than to scream. So I did. My scream ripped from my throat and bounced off the walls in the confined space of the elevator. When things were quiet again I turned the elevator back on and waited to arrive in autopsy. I found Ducky sitting at his desk as I walked through the automatic doors, and the sound made him turn around. 

 

"Ah Olivia, did Gibbs send you down?"

 

"Um no, he didn't. I came down of my own accord." His eyes peered at me from behind his glasses. There was more in his gaze than I knew how to process. 

 

"Well, what can I do for you?" I looked around the room and noticed that our latest victim was still lying on the furthest table. 

 

"Did you find any markings on this victim?" This would be a safe topic. I could talk about work. 

 

"I did indeed, and it appears that I was correct on the fact that it seems to be a counting system. Her leg was broken in two places, most likely after she tried to run."

 

"What about all of the injuries to her face?" 

 

"All indicate that they were done by hand. Our killer most likely injured himself this time." I sighed and looked toward the ceiling. If that was the case then hopefully we would get lucky soon.

 

"Now, if we just had suspects then maybe that would help us."

 

"Yes, that does present a dilemma." Ducky looked at me for a moment before pulling the spare chair out, gesturing for me to sit down. I bit my lip before giving in. My body felt stiff as I waited for him to start asking questions.  

 

"Olivia, I get the feeling that you didn't really come visit me to find out more about our latest victim." I gazed at the older man as he sat patiently. l leaned back into the chair and rubbed that back of my neck. 

 

"You're right. I'm assuming you know about the phone calls I've been receiving all day." A look of recognition passed over his face and he held a finger up, standing and moving to one of his many cabinets. He pulled out a bottle of amber liquid and two glasses. He poured two drinks before rejoining me.

 

"I do, and I imagine that it's taking a rather large toll on you emotionally. Now, usually I don't condone drinking on the job, however, with the circumstances it looks as if you need it." He hand me one of the glasses and I felt a little relief bloom in my chest at his words. I hugged the glass to my chest, and spoke eagerly, 

 

"Yes, and I understand why Gibbs wants to continue to keep a record of his calls, but I think it's beginning to mess with my head, Ducky. I hadn't heard his voice in so long, and I thought I was doing better. Now, after hearing his voice on and off all day I'm afraid that I'm beginning to believe the sincerity in his voice. I don't know if I can keep this up." I cut myself off when I realized that I was beginning to ramble. Ducky simply gazed at me, waiting for me to finish. I know it's because I try to keep everything in. I took a deep breath as Ducky opened his mouth.

 

"Have you told Gibbs how you're feeling?"

 

"What? Of course not." I swirled the amber liquid around before downing it quickly. It burned slightly, but it was nice to feel something other than anxiety or nausea. I placed the glass down gently.

 

"Perhaps you should. Despite him being a rather closed off and private person, Gibbs understands more than most when someone has had enough. He would rather you be honest than keep things from him. Do you trust him?" I frowned slightly at his question. Was it really something he needed to ask?

 

"Who? Gibbs? He hasn't given me a reason not to." 

 

"But you trust him?"

 

"Yes." I cocked my head to the side as I looked at Ducky, who seemed to have more on his mind than usual. I cleared my throat. Maybe it would be safe to ask him about this now.

 

"Ducky, there was something that you asked me. You asked if I had tried to find my father. Do you think that's a good idea? Especially after all this time? Who's to say he would he even want to know?" I looked up at the ceiling once more. To say I wasn't prepared to deal with this much emotion today was an understatement. Working with all of them was beginning to make me want to open up more, and I wasn't sure how to handle that feeling.

 

"It would be a tricky situation, but it comes down to what is best for you. Is it better for you not to know? Or has it been something that has eaten at you over time? What would be the best way to bring yourself closure?" Before I could say anything else the autopsy doors whooshed open behind me. I turned to see Gibbs walking in.

 

"Ah Jethro, I was wondering when you would be down."

 

"Could you give Olivia and I some time to talk, Duck?" His eyes roamed over the desk, no doubt noticing both of our now empty glasses.

 

"Of course! I need to go make sure that Mr. Palmer has gotten the supplies in the truck reorganized." I watched Ducky leave as Gibbs took his place, something sleek in his hands. My throat tightened slightly as Gibbs cleared his throat.

 

"Are you alright?" I sat up straight, fully prepared to say that I was fine, but then he quirked an eyebrow causing me to stop myself. My body deflated again as I put my head in my hands.

 

"Not really." Gibbs nodded, sitting my phone screen down on Ducky's desk. 

 

"Talk to me." My phone began to vibrate on the desk making me jump slightly. Gibbs picked it up and denied the call without saying anything. He waited for me to begin speaking, his blue eyes steady. I took a deep breath and when I let it go, it was shaky. 

 

"It seems that constantly answering Liam's phone calls is taking a toll on me. I think I'm beginning to believe the supposed sincerity in his voice. After not being in contact with him I thought I was getting better, but I guess not as much as I had hoped. Don't get me wrong, I understand why we need to trace these back to him, but Gibbs I don't think it's safe for me to do it anymore." I frowned as I finished speaking, but Gibbs's face was neutral. I was worried that he was going to be more upset with me. Gibbs sighed and rubbed his face.

 

"You should've said something earlier."

 

"I thought I could handle it. I understand why we need to do it, so we can build up a case against him. It's just a little more difficult than I expected." His frown deepened making my voice trail away.

 

"We can think of something else. You need to remember that your safety is what's most important." I gazed down at my hands as my fingers twisted together in my lap.

 

"I'm afraid nothing is going to help me, Gibbs." My eyes began to sting and before I knew it, I was wrapped in Gibbs's arms. Then the dam broke. Tears began to flow freely, no doubt leaving a wet spot on his blazer. His hands rubbed my back as he shushed me. 

 

"We are going to take care of him. I promise." 

 

I tried to calm myself down as we sat there, but the more I calmed down the more embarrassment set in. I ignored it as much as I could because for the first time in a long time I felt safe. It was a strange feeling. After a moment, I collected my senses and removed myself from his hold. My phone began vibrating breaking the silence. I picked it up looking at the screen. Luckily, I knew this caller. 

 

"Hey Matty." I stood up and moved a little bit away from Gibbs. 

 

**\- Gibbs's POV -**

 

I listened to Olivia's voice as she answered the phone, but she sounded relieved if not a little happy. I heard the side door open up behind me as she stepped away. Ducky took her chair, watching her as well.

 

"Did you two have a nice chat?"

 

"Define nice."

 

"Who's she speaking to?"

 

"Someone named Matty. Must be a friend of hers," My voice trailed away as I turned to face Ducky before continuing, "I screwed up again, Duck."

 

"You had no way of knowing how this would effect her. She's a tough one to read. Kind of like someone else I know." Ducky raised his brows at me and I rolled my eyes.

 

"I see you and Abby have still been conspiring."

 

"Oh please Jethro, she only confirmed what I already knew." I rolled my eyes, but didn't dispute anything.

 

"We have to find a new way to take MacHurin down. I won't feel better until I know she's safe from him." Ducky nodded, but the conversation died as Olivia returned.

 

"That was my friend, Matt. He wanted to check in on me." She had a soft smile at the corners of her mouth. I filed that away to deal with at a later date.

 

"Are you feeling okay now?"

 

"Uh, yeah. Much better. I actually think I'm going to go back upstairs and take another look at our latest victims file." I nodded and she turned to leave, but paused as the doors opened.

 

"If Liam calls again, what do I do?"

 

"Ignore it. I'll talk to Vance and see if he has a new phone ready for you yet."

 

"Thanks, Gibbs." She waved to Ducky before the doors closed behind her and she was out of sight.

 

"Jethro, I have to tell you something." Ducky sounded slightly guilty and I immediately knew what it was about. This was going to be a long day.

 

"Let me guess, she's thinking of looking for her father?"

 

"More like she was conflicted about it. She's worried about what happens should she actually figure it out; she thinks her father, you, won't accept her. Gibbs, I think you need to start thinking about what you're going to do if she pursues this." My brows furrowed as I stared at him.

 

"Don't forget who put the idea into her head." Ducky scoffed before crossing his arms over his chest.

 

"Yes, I realize that I jump started this. She hasn't made a decision. I figured I'd have the decency to forewarn you so you wouldn't be blindsided. I simply wish to know what you would like to do should she decide that she wants this. She will most likely come to Abigail or I for the help." I sighed as I ran my hands over my face. I knew the truth now. Certainly, she deserved to know the truth too. Maybe I needed to just bypass all of the trouble and talk to her, but I shook my head. 

 

"You're worried about her finding out the truth."

 

"I haven't been a father in a long time, Duck."

 

"The tendencies of fatherhood never really leave a person, Jethro. I've seen the way you treat your team and whether you realize it or not you father them. You give them guidance and you take care of them." Ducky smirked slightly and I knew he had me pegged as usual.

 

"I'll think about it and I'll talk to Abby. If Olivia comes to you with more questions, let me know." I made my way out of autopsy and back upstairs to the bull pen. I found McGee alone at his desk with no sign of the other three.

 

"Where is everyone?"

 

"Tony and Ziva went on a quick lunch run and Olivia had a visitor." 

 

"A visitor?" I froze behind my desk as I look at McGee. She had a visitor and she had been left alone with whoever it was? What was everyone thinking?

 

"I escorted him up myself, boss. His name is Matthew Haney, lives here in D.C. He and Olivia are in the breakroom grabbing a drink." 

 

"Who is with Olivia in the breakroom grabbing a drink?" Ziva walked up holding a brown bag out to me as Tony handed one to McGee.

 

"Matthew Haney. He's a friend of hers apparently." Tony perched on the edge of his desk with his eyebrows raised. 

 

"And why are we just now learning about him? I thought we knew everything, McDigger." McGee rolled his eyes as I took a bite of my sandwich. Tony had a bit of a point. How could this Haney guy slip through our research? Ziva cleared her throat and looked pointedly toward the area near the bottom of the stairs. Olivia and her friend were standing there, but I could only see her face. She was laughing at something he said, and I'm pretty sure that's the first genuine laugh I've seen come from her since she started here.

 

"McGee, see what all you can find on him for me." I guess worrying about this at a later date would be now if this was the same 'Matty" who called. It had to be.

 

"Sure thing, boss." 

 

"Have we found anything else on the current case?"

 

"Just one name. Lieutenant Alexander Keane. He was the CO for all three girls and all three girls had some form of harassment file placed against someone that Lieutenant Keane dismissed."

 

"How was that missed?" My brow furrowed as Tony spoke. Things had been a little messy lately around here. 

 

"We're not sure, but luckily Olivia went over the files again."

 

"Tony, get him in here. Call first, maybe we can catch him off guard."

 

"On it." Tony picked up his phone as Ziva made her way to stand next to my desk, but I trained my eyes over to where Olivia was to check on her. The smile on her face hadn't slipped away yet. Maybe this would be good for her mood.

 

"He seems harmless enough, Gibbs."

 

"Yup."

 

"But you want to be cautious."

 

"Mhm." I could feel Ziva's brown eyes boring a hole into my head as I gave her one syllable answers. She knew something was up, and I could only guess that she knew already. She took a slight breath before standing up straight.

 

"I need to go have a talk with Abby about a personal matter unless you need me here."

 

"Go, but don't be too long." I watched Ziva walk away swiftly and disappear through the elevator doors.

 

"Boss, Lieutenant Keane didn't show up for work this morning." I wanted to roll my eyes. They always tried to disappear, but it rarely works out for them. I wonder when they would begin to learn.

 

"Do they know where he is?"

 

"They didn't even receive a phone call."

 

"McGee, can you try to track him through his phone?"

 

"I can give it a shot."

 

I looked back up to keep an eye on Olivia only to find her and her friend not where they were. I didn't like that, and I wasn't going to lie, it made me nervous and it was taking everything I had not to go looking for her.

 

**\- Ziva's POV -**

  

"Abby." I walked through the door swiftly, stopping when she jumped about a foot into the air.

 

"Jesus Ziva! You scared me." She clicked on a few things before turning to face me.

 

"What were you looking at?"

 

"Nothing important." I handed her the Caf-Pow I was holding and looked at her carefully. She was hiding something, but I decided to let it go for now.

 

"I wanted to talk to you about something that's been bugging me." I furrowed my brows as I leaned against the table. I wasn't sure how to approach the subject. Abby turned her music off and grabbed my hand pulling me into the other room.

 

"Have a seat and talk to me. What's wrong?" Abby took a sip of the Caf-Pow as she crossed her legs. I bit my bottom lip as I took a deep breath, deciding to just rip off a the Band-Aid.

 

"It's about Olivia and Gibbs." I watched as she sat up a little straighter, placing her drink on the desk. Her eyes were a little wide, which made me cock my head to the side. 

 

"Really? What about them?" Her raspy voice shot up a slight octave, but she cleared her throat quickly. 

 

"This is going to sound crazy, but do you think they act similar?"

 

"That's not crazy." Abby snorted loudly as she visibly relaxed taking another drink of her Caf-Pow.

 

"You don't think I'm crazy?"

 

"Not at all. He goes with his gut, she goes with her gut. They both sneak up on you. They never really divulge much unless they feel it's necessary. Honestly, if I didn't know any better I'd say they were related." Abby laughed loudly and if I wasn't mistaken a little nervously. I narrowed my eyes and watched Abby closely. After a few moments my eyes widened and Abby tried to hide her face.

 

"Abby, what do you know?"

 

"Nothing! I know nothing." Abby folded her arms over her chest and I mirrored her actions, waiting. She and I rarely kept secrets from each other anymore. Her shoulders deflated and she hid her face in her hands.

 

"I can't tell you. I promised Gibbs that I'd get rid of it, but I just couldn't." I reached across the desk and grabbed one of her hands.

 

"What were you supposed to get rid of?" Abby bit her lip before shaking herself letting my hand go.

 

"Okay! Okay. I'll tell you, but you _cannot_ say anything to Olivia, and Gibbs cannot know that you know." She began typing on the computer in front of her, hesitating to turn the screen to face me. She held out her pinky to me.

 

"Promise me that you will not breathe a word of this to anyone, even Tony." I glanced between the computer and Abby's face for a moment before taking her pinky in mine. Not telling Tony was going to be difficult. After all the secrets over the years we had discussed never keeping things from one another. I glanced between Abby's pinky and the computer. 

 

"I promise." Abby turned the screen to face me and I felt my jaw drop. Everything I had been thinking had just been confirmed. 

 

"Does anyone else know about this?"

 

"Ducky and well, I showed Gibbs, but he told me to delete it."

 

"What did he say?"

 

"I don't think he really knew what to think. He was mostly upset that I looked into it at all. I think he's still processing the information."

 

"When did you tell him?"

 

"Before we were contacted about the last victim. You know what this means right? Everything Olivia's mom told her indirectly led her to finding her father without her even realizing it." Abby grimaced as she admitted that the news hadn't come at the best time for Gibbs.

 

"Abby, isn't Vance the one who places interns with teams?"

 

"I believe so. Why?"

 

"It's just a hunch that I have. Can you find out if her mother somehow knew Vance?" Abby's eyes narrowed slightly and she shook her head at what I was suggesting.

 

"Ziva, I don't think we should be digging into that. Vance is the director." I leaned back in my seat and ruffled my hair. She was right, if we dug any further we could potentially get into trouble while also revealing Gibbs's secret. 

 

"Put it on an external hard drive or something at least. You need to get that off of your computer so no one can access it." Abby nodded her head as I stood.

 

"What are you going to do?"

 

"I'm going to talk to Gibbs." Her mouth dropped open angrily before I continued, "Don't worry. I'm not going to tell him that I know. I'm just going to tell him how I've been feeling and see if he talks about it willingly."

 

"Good luck with that one." She rolled her eyes as I wrapped my arms around her neck. 

 

"Thank you, Abby." 

 

I walked out of her lab swiftly to get back up to the bull pen. When the elevator opened Tony was standing there with a worried look on his face. I frowned as he pulled me through the doors.

 

"What's wrong?" He pressed the button for the lobby before turning to me.

 

"Nothing, I'm just thinking, but we can talk more in the car. We have to go pick up Lieutenant Keane."

 

"Tony, I don't have my gun." He reached around to his back bringing my gun and badge around. I clipped both to my belt as we leave the elevator heading for our car.

 

"What did McGee find out about Olivia's friend?"

 

"He was still compiling everything, but he lives here in D.C. I don't know how to feel about him. Olivia didn't mention him at all."

 

"You sound very suspicious. Not to mention the subject never came up."

 

"Well, how do we know he doesn't have a connection to MacHurin?" We slid into the car and I stared at him as he started it.

 

"I don't think I've ever seen you this protective over someone, Tony." He shrugged and kept his eyes on the road.

 

"You know I grew up as an only child, but I always wanted a younger sibling. I mean, sure I have McGee, he's like a brother to me, but with Olivia it's just different. I barely know her, but I want to keep her safe." 

 

"I can understand that. She makes me think of Tali." I trailed off as I stared out the window. Tony's hand found mine and gripped it tightly. 

 

"Well then we do our best to keep Olivia safe."

 

"We keep her safe." I nodded my head as Tony pressed the gas a little more. 

 

**\- Olivia's POV -**

 

"I'm sorry we can't go out to lunch, Matty."

 

"I understand. I want to keep you safe. I'm just glad I get to see you again. Why didn't you tell me that you were moving to D.C.? You could've crashed at my place, which is still an open invitation." I grimaced at the suggestion.

 

"I don't think your fiancée would like that very much." Matty rolled his eyes as he took a sip of his coffee. We were sitting at my desk under McGee's vigilant supervision while Gibbs was talking to Vance.

 

"Olivia, you know that Stacy doesn't actually have a problem with you. Besides, we've been friends for a very long time."

 

"Yeah, and we also used to date, Matty." The tips of his ears grew pink as I ran a hand through my hair. I really hoped McGee wasn't listening in. If he was, I hoped he kept the information to himself.

 

"Let's just agree to disagree." I laughed gently before we both fell quiet. Matt and I had dated years ago, but we broke up when he went away to study abroad. We ended it amicably, and we luckily were able to stay friends. However, when I started dating Liam I had been forced to cut all ties with him. I honestly felt like I couldn't apologize enough times. I nudged his knee gently.

 

"Can I please just apologize?"

 

"Liv stop. You apologized already, and I've forgiven you. It's time to move past it, okay? Besides, I blame him, not you." He tucked some hair behind my ear, his fingers lingering a little longer than I thought they would. I backed away quickly as Gibbs appeared, clearing his throat. He had a box in his hands as he stood over the two of us. Matt moved a little more, squirming under the older man's gaze.

 

"Here's your new phone. Get it set up quickly because Ziva and Tony should be back soon with the suspect." I took the box gingerly, nodding.

 

"Okay, am I going to be observing or participating this time?" I tried not to sound as nervous as I felt.

 

"Observation only." 

 

"Thank you - for the phone." Gibbs nodded before taking a sip of his coffee and moving to his desk. Matt stood quickly.

 

"In that case, I should probably get out of here. Stacy messaged me earlier asking me to grab a few things on my way home. Let me know if you want to take me up on that offer." I stood up and he pulled me into a hug. I held on tightly, letting him break the hug first.

 

"I won't, but I may call you to help me move when I finally get my own place. Now, let me just get my badge and I'll walk you down." I turned around to pick up my badge off the desk when Gibbs' voice stopped me. 

 

"McGee can walk him down. You need to get that phone set up." Gibbs didn't look up from his computer and I could hear the no nonsense tone. I sighed as McGee stood. 

 

"I guess McGee is walking you out. Maybe you, Stacy, and I can grab dinner soon." I gave him another hug before he was being led away. My mouth fell into a frown and I moved to stand in front of Gibbs's desk, my hands on my hips. It took him a moment, but he looked up at me and I could've sworn I saw a glimmer of recognition in his eyes. His brow furrowed.

 

"What?"

 

"I could've escorted my friend down to the lobby, Gibbs. It doesn't take that long to set up a phone."

 

"Well, I vetoed that option and gave orders."

 

"Oh please Gibbs, you were practically having us chaperoned by McGee. Matt is my  _friend_. He wouldn't do anything to hurt me." I folded my arms across my chest as Gibbs pinched the bridge of his nose. 

 

"That's besides the point, Williams."

 

"Then what is the point?" I finally yelled, growing more frustrated and then Gibbs's hand slammed down on his desk as he stood up. His face growing a little red.

 

"We didn't know he even existed! You failed to mention him and he slipped through when we looked into your background. Suddenly, he shows up. It's a little suspicious if you ask me. Now, do as you were told and get your phone set up!" 

 

My arms slipped down to my sides, my hands clenching as I looked up at Gibbs. He quirked his brows and I huffed before turning away from him. I marched over to my desk and picked up the box before heading for the elevator. If he wants me to set my phone up then I'll set it up down in Abby's lab. As I stepped into the elevator, I felt my shoulders deflate and the realization that I just yelled at Gibbs and he yelled back took over making my stomach drop. It's not my fault the subject of me having friends never came up. How did that even get through the background checks they ran?

 

**\- Gibbs's POV -**

 

I sat back down in my chair when a low whistle came from somewhere beside me. I looked up to find the other three standing there watching everything unfold. I frowned. 

 

"Where's Lieutenant Keane?"

 

"I had agent Drennan escort him to the interrogation room." I nodded, but didn't say anything. I leaned back in my chair and rubbed my face roughly.

 

"You okay, Gibbs?" Ziva's voice was soft and I could feel all of their eyes on me. This girl was going to give me an aneurysm.

 

"Uh, yeah. I need to go talk to Ducky. We'll meet at interrogation in fifteen." I stood up and headed for the elevator, a strange feeling in my chest. 

 

**\- Ziva's POV -**

 

"I wonder if he's actually okay. He seemed a little odd." I looked at Tony as he looked between me and McGee.

 

"He's been acting strange since we got the latest victim, Tony. There has to be something more going on." 

 

I kept my mouth shut as the two speculated between themselves. I knew exactly what was wrong with Gibbs, but I couldn't do anything about it. I stood up, tucking my gun away in my desk drawer.

 

"I'm going to go check on him."

 

"Ziva, I don't know if that's a good idea." I ignored Tony and began making my way down to autopsy. As the doors opened I was greeted by a semi dark room. Ducky nowhere to be seen, but Gibbs was lying on one of the clean, empty tables with his hands folded over his stomach.

 

"Why am I not surprised that you came after me?" I moved closer as Gibbs spoke, leaning my arms on the table as he turned his head to face me.

 

"I wanted to check in with you with everything going on. You seem a bit more stressed than usual." I watched his expression carefully, but it remained calm and he didn't say anything. I decided to try a different approach.

 

"You know Gibbs, I don't think any of us expected to get this protective over Olivia so quickly. Even Tony feels the need to keep her safe and you know how he is." Gibbs sighed softly and I waited to see if he would speak.

 

"How long have you had it figured out?" I froze unsure of what he meant. I opened my mouth to question him, but he held his hand up to stop me.

 

"Don't act stupid, Ziva. Out of the rest of them I knew you'd be one of the first ones to figure it out."

 

"So, it's true; Olivia's your daughter." I didn't make it a question so he wouldn't have a moment to deny anything. He swallowed hard before sitting up. 

 

"She is."

 

"Are you going to tell her?"

 

"Ziva. . " His voice trailed away and it was quiet. Strangely quiet. I looked at him for a few moments before I settled on what to say to him.

 

"You're worried about what's going to happen if she does find out." I crawled up onto the table and sat next to him. It was different, usually when we have these types of moments we're in his basement and there's a bottle of bourbon between us. Gibbs cleared his throat before looking up to the ceiling.

 

"Nah, I know that she'll just be disappointed. From what I can tell everything she heard about me probably built a false image up in her head."

 

"I think she'd be happy to finally figure out the piece of her that she's been missing. I know that if I were in her situation I wouldn't stop until I learned all that I could. I believe she would just be happy to know who you are." I tried to get him to meet my eyes, but all he did was look at his watch.

 

"Maybe you're right, but I don't plan on rushing things along. I'll let her make the decision and when the time comes, well, I guess we'll just cross that bridge when we get to it." He slid off the table before offering a hand to help me down.

 

"I still think you should talk to her. If you put it off you don't know how she'll react if she finds out you knew this entire time. I'm not saying make the decision now. Just. . .think about it." Gibbs nodded as he stretched lightly.

 

"Go find Olivia and we'll head up to interrogation." I nodded and watched him walk out of autopsy. I sighed leaning against the table once more. Why did everything seem to become so complicated. I pushed myself off the table and made my way to Abby's lab. Figuring if she wasn't hidden in autopsy then Abby was the next room of seclusion.

 

When I walked through the door I found Abby leaning over her maspectrometer. The other door was closed with Olivia on the other side and I could just faintly hear loud music through the glass. Abby looked up as I watched Olivia playing with her phone. 

 

"She's been like that since she came down here. She wouldn't talk to me, really. Just asked if she could use the other room and next thing I know she's locked in there and my stereo system became hijacked." 

 

"Gibbs and Olivia got into a fight upstairs." I folded my arms over my chest as Abby's eyes widened.

 

"Like a screaming match?"

 

"Almost, but now I have come to collect her so we can go up to interrogation. Think you can hijack your system back to catch her attention." Abby smirked before she began typing on her computer, the music stopped immediately in the other room. Olivia opened the door, a frown on her face.

 

"Abs, do you know what happened with the music? It just kind of stopped. I don't think I messed anything up." 

 

"Sorry, I turned it off because Ziva came to collect you." Olivia turned to face me, but her face was blank. I tried to offer her a smile. 

 

"It's time to go interrogate Lieutenant Keane." She nodded before turning back to Abby. I tried to keep myself from frowning. If she was anything like Gibbs then that meant that her next step was closing herself off. We would all be back to square one with trying to get her to open up.

 

"Okay. Abby is it okay if I leave my phone down here to finish charging up?"

 

"Of course. I'll keep a close eye on it. Did you want me to set up protection on it for you?"

 

"That'd be great, thanks." Abby tried to give her a smile as well, but Olivia simply pushed passed me and headed for the elevator. I glanced at Abby, who looked upset as she folded her arms over her chest. I smiled apologetically and hurried to catch up with Olivia. I sighed as we loaded ourselves into the tiny metal room, leaning in the corner. Olivia kept her eyes forward and her back straight. I glanced at my watch and nearly growled when I realized we wouldn't have enough time for me to talk to her. The elevator dinged as we hit our floor and she was off like a shot. I followed quickly and found her swerving around Tony to get into the viewing room. He held looked at me and I shrugged. 

 

"Is Gibbs here already?"

 

"He just walked into the room. Did she say anything?"

 

"No, and I don't believe she's going to willingly right now." I shook my head, trying to think of a way to get her to talk.

 

"Well, let's get in there. If we miss anything Gibbs will give us the classic glare." I could tell Tony wanted to ask what Gibbs and I had talked about, but he knew that most of the time it was things that I couldn't repeat as they were not my secrets to tell. He opened the door for me and we walked in without another word. McGee and Olivia were standing next to each other concentrating on a smiling Lieutenant. It was odd. He had been acting strangely ever since we had picked him up. Acting as if he had nothing to hide. 

 

"I would like to know why you dismissed three sexual harassment cases." Gibbs' voice pulled me from my thoughts as he calmly took a sip of his coffee.

 

"Agent Gibbs, I'm not sure what it is you're talking about." Keane was still smiling and shaking his head, but Gibbs simply opened all three dossiers in front of him, tapping the one in the middle with his finger.

 

"All three of my victims have been at some point under your command, Lieutenant. All three of them have filed sexual harassment charges against someone that has also been under your command. Why don't we start with that?" Keane sighed and leaned back against the chair heavily. I could feel Olivia shuffling her feet next to me, making me glance at her. 

 

"Purely coincidence. None of the claims ever panned out. It's as simple as that."

 

"Was there ever actually any investigation?"

 

"There was never a need for investigation." Keane began to frown slightly as he rubbed his chin, stubble growing where it hadn't been previously. His eyes began glancing toward the glass as well, and I saw Olivia take a tiny step back. I frowned before looking back at the other room. I could tell Gibbs wasn't happy with how this was going and he began to stand, closing all of the folders. He moved to the door and Keane's eyes moved with him.

 

"Does this mean I'm free to go?"

 

"Nope. I've got you for twenty-four hours." Gibbs shut the door behind him and we all filed out into the hallway. Olivia had somehow managed to get nudged the closest to Gibbs and she didn't seem happy about it.

 

"We need to find something on him. McGee, I want you to check and see if there have been any other reports filed by anyone who has been under Keane's command. Tony, Ziva look into where he's been in the last forty-eight hours. I want everything." We all nodded and went to do our assignments, I glanced back at Olivia to find her standing there petulantly.

 

**\- Olivia's POV -**

 

I had my arms folded over my chest and avoided looking at Gibbs. Of course we would end up alone together. I waited for him to give me an assignment, but he said nothing. I quirked a brow before opening my mouth.

 

"What do you want me to do?" Gibbs leaned against the wall, keeping his eyes on me, and took a sip of his coffee.

 

"Tell me what you think of what went on in the interrogation room." I frowned and dropped my hands to my sides. Why wasn't he scolding me for my behavior earlier? I had been a little stupid and I was expecting full on glare mode, not him wanting my opinion. I released a puff of air.

 

"Well, he's definitely hiding something. I won't be surprised if we find more dismissed harassment reports. I can't tell why he would be hiding it though. I think he might actually think the girls deserve what they get. It's kind of gross. However, I did notice his hand is wrapped and Ducky mentioned to me earlier that that was something to look out for." He nodded and I leaned against the wall across from Gibbs as his eyes inspect my face. The older man sighed after a few moments.

 

"Listen, earlier -" There it was, I held my hands up to stop him.

 

"No, I was wrong to get angry and I may have overreacted just a bit. I know why you're keeping me practically on lockdown, and I understand, but Gibbs it's driving me insane." I frowned as he nodded.

 

"I know, it'd drive me insane too, but you're not overreacting. I grew worried when your friend had slipped through the cracks." He took another long draw from his coffee cup that never seemed to be empty. I bit my lip as I contemplated suggesting what I wanted to him. It was now or never.

 

"Maybe, you could shorten the leash a little. Especially inside the building. There's so much security here, and I doubt anyone is going to try anything while I'm here inside." Gibbs mouth quirked up a bit at the corners as he nodded his head. I felt a little bit of hope bubble up in my chest. 

 

"Okay." My eyes widened and I stood up straight away from the wall.

 

"Okay?" He nodded and before I could stop myself I threw my arms around his neck in a tight squeeze. I felt his shoulders tense and then relax as he laughed lightly, hugging back. I gained as much control over myself as I could before pulling away.

 

"Thanks Gibbs," I glanced at my watch and figured Abby would probably be done with my phone by now, "I should go get my phone from Abby, she said she was going to put extra protections on it for me." I began to walk away when he stopped me.

 

"Hey, Ducky mentioned that you were thinking about looking for your dad."

 

"Oh, uh, yeah I was, but I'm still not sure." I rubbed the back of my neck nervously as Gibbs cocked his head to the side, shrugging.

 

"What's stopping you?"

 

"Well, who's to say he even wants to know about me? If mom left him before I was even born then maybe she had a good reason." He seemed a little thoughtful as he tried to form his words.

 

"Give it more thought. You said it yourself when we met that you didn't think he even knew you existed. There's a good chance that he'd want to know." Gibbs tossed his cup in the small trash can that was nearby and began to walk away. My brows furrowed as I watched him. What could he have meant by that? Did Gibbs know something that I didn't? He has been working here for a long time. I shook my head and made my way to the elevator.

 

**\- Gibbs' POV -**

 

What in the hell did I just do? I sighed as I washed my hands in the sink before splashing my face. This entire situation was going to become messy. The bathroom door opened to reveal Tony looking around.

 

"There you are, boss. McGee found more cases that had been filed, and you'll never guess who has one filed against him." I rolled my eyes and brushed past Tony, heading for the bull pen. McGee quickly threw everything up on the screen and I grew annoyed.

 

"Do we know why there wasn't any investigation?"

 

"All it says it that the record was tossed out due to lack of evidence. Keane's been a CO for a while, boss. Do you really think he has that much pull?" 

 

"If he has friends in the right places then yes." My eyes roved over the report looking to see who looked into the situation.

 

"Ziva, try to get ahold of this Commander Jonathon Petty. I want to talk to him." Ziva began making calls as I turned back to McGee and Tony.

 

"Find what you can on Commander Petty." I turned on my heel and made my way down to autopsy. This long day just became even longer.


	5. Five

**\- Olivia's POV -**

 

"Thank you so much for fixing my phone up, Abby."

 

"Of course! Anything to help keep you away from that creep." Abby had a smile on her face as I watched her type away on her computer. I didn't realize I was staring until she glanced over at me.

 

"Is there anything else I can do for you?" 

 

"Actually, I have a question and I'm hoping you will have an answer." I quirked my brow hopefully as she sat back in her chair, Caf-Pow in hand.

 

"Shoot."

 

"How would I go about finding someone?"

 

"What do you mean?" I frowned and tried to form my words. I took a deep breath before clasping my hands in front of me. This was harder than I thought it was going to be.

 

"I want to find my dad, but I don't know how to go about doing it. I feel like this is something I have to do, even if he wants nothing to do with me." 

 

A knowing looked passed over Abby's face as she took a sip of her drink. I wasn't sure what gave off the vibe that she was nervous, but I could just tell something was off. She sat down the Caf-Pow and began typing on her computer.

 

"There are a couple of things you can do, but I don't know if I'd be the one who can find him." 

 

"But you'll help me?"

 

"I can try." Her eyes glanced at her computer as it pinged and I stood up. 

 

"Thank you. Let me know what you need me to do." She stood and followed me out of the back room. Gibbs appeared in the doorway causing us to stop.

 

"What've ya got, Abs? Ziva said you wanted to see me."

 

"I do, but it's a personal matter. Olivia, you didn't need anything else did you?" I shook my head and moved for the door, skirting around Gibbs. I sent a hand up in farewell as I headed for the elevator, but it didn't escape my notice that the lab door was shut behind me rather quickly. 

 

When I got to the bull pen things were quiet and there were flowers on my desk. I frowned because they weren't daisies meaning they weren't from Liam. I looked for a card, but there wasn't one. I picked up the vase and moved to Ziva's desk.

 

"Hey, Ziva did you happen to see when these were dropped off?"

 

"Umm, no. Who are they from?" Her brow furrowed as I shrugged.

 

"No idea, there wasn't a card attached."

 

"That's odd. Do you know anyone in D.C. besides Matthew?" I shook my head as I inspected the vase closely. There wasn't anything out of the ordinary that I could see. 

 

"Do you think the mail room would have any indication of who could've sent them?"

 

"It wouldn't hurt to check it out." 

 

"Do you need my help with anything before I go down?" 

 

"I don't have anything right now. McGee, Tony do you two need help with anything?" I turned and stared at the two of them as they shook their heads. 

 

"Okay, well if Gibbs asks then I'm down in the mail room."

 

**\- Gibbs's POV -**

 

 

"Did you hear me, Gibbs?" Abby's voice was nervous as I leaned against the wall. It didn't take Olivia very long to make her decision. I had at least hoped she would give me some time. I rubbed a hand over my face.

 

"Yeah, I heard you. What did you tell her?"

 

"I told her I could get her some information, but that's about all. What are we going to do?" 

 

"Nothing yet." Abby frowned slightly and folded her arms.

 

"Gibbs no. You  _need_ to tell her yourself. If she finds out and she knows you knew this entire time she's going to be angry. Even worse, any trust she has in you will be gone." 

 

I stood there unsure of what to say. Abby was right, of course. It was only a matter of time before this all blew up. I sighed and kissed Abby's cheek before heading for the door.

 

"Thanks Abs."

 

"Gibbs. Gibbs!" Her voice followed me out of her lab as I made my way upstairs. There was one other person, who needed to be kept in the loop. 

 

I glanced down at the bull pen as I walked to Vance's office. I didn't see Olivia anywhere, which registered as weird. I sent a quick text to Ziva before going through Vance's door. He didn't seem all that surprised to see me, however.

 

"We need to talk."

 

"About?"

 

"Olivia. She has asked Abby for help in finding her father." Vance clasped his hands in front of him as he looked up at me. My phone vibrated and I checked it quickly. 

 

"What do you plan on doing now?"

 

"If I don't tell her myself and she finds out she'll be angry."

 

"She will." He raised an eyebrow and I sighed. Vance just sat there waiting.

 

"Are you wanting me to tell her?"

 

"I don't know, Leon. My hands feel like they're tied here."

 

"Gibbs, it would be better coming from you rather than a DNA test or me." He leaned back in his chair as I sighed. I was getting frustrated with all of this. I grabbed a chair and sat down. Cassandra was never one to make things easy, but then again neither was I. Either way there was a chance of upsetting Olivia. She would take the fallout of this situation no matter what. Vance cleared his throat grabbing my attention.

 

"Listen, the way I see it, you have two options. Either you let her do a DNA test and figure it out with the possibility of her losing any trust in everyone that she knows here or you talk to her. Explain the situation to her. Olivia is bright and she's an understanding person."

 

"Pick the lesser of two evils." 

 

"Exactly." I nodded and stood. 

 

"Be prepared for any fallout."

 

"Good luck." I sent him a wave as I walked out of his office shoving our conversation to the back of my mind as I made my way down to the bull pen. 

 

"What've you got?"

 

"There were three other separate sexual harassment cases filed all by women under Lieutenant Keane's command. No investigations were done, all three files dismissed."

 

"Keane's phone has pinged him in three major locations; work, home, and here in the Navy Yard once we took him into custody. However, there is a lot of time unaccounted for when his phone must have been shut off. There have also been multiple unknown numbers that he has been in contact with, each number in contact with him at least three to four times. I had McGee try to trace them and they are no longer in working order." Tony's voice trailed away as I looked at him. Something wasn't sitting right with any of this. 

 

"Anything else?"

 

"I tried to contact some of the women who filed the harassment cases, and a few of them are willing to meet with us if it's necessary." Ziva flipped through her papers. 

 

"We have to be missing something." My phone began to ring as I tried to go over everything we knew. I picked it up quickly, "Gibbs." 

 

My gut clenched as the voice came over the line. I looked around the room trying to find Olivia, still not sure where she was. 

 

"Yeah, we're on our way," I hung up quickly and moved to grab my badge and gun, "Grab your gear! Where's Williams?" Ziva popped her head up as she strapped her gun to herself.

 

"She went down to the mail room to see if she could find out who left her some flowers. She must still be down there."

 

"Flowers?"

 

"They weren't daisies and there was no card." I quirked an eyebrow at her and her face went pale. 

 

"How long has she been gone?"

 

"I'm not sure. I'll go look for her." I waved my hand and tossed the keys to her.

 

"I'll go, you three let Ducky know that we've got a body and go get the truck ready." I turned to make my way to the elevator. My chest was clenching. Surely she wouldn't leave base without telling someone. My hand was twitching as the elevator made it's way down slowly. I should've taken the stairs. Finally the doors dinged open and my heart unclenched a little when I saw Olivia standing there talking with one of the workers. She looked frustrated and was pointing fervently at the vase of flowers. I walked over quickly.

 

"What's going on?" Olivia jumped and turned to me. 

 

"Well, I have been down here trying to figure out who sent me these, but they're not being super helpful."

 

"It's going to have to wait. We've got another body." Her eyes went wide and nodded. She picked up the vase and followed me back to the elevator.

 

"Where are we going?"

 

"Body's here in D.C. this time. Just leave those on your desk and hustle." The two of us stepped out of the elevator and I watched her closely as she moved as fast as she could. The flowers in the vase forgotten. I sent a quick text to Abby asking her to look it over before Olivia was in front of me again, her bag slung over her shoulder. We reloaded onto the elevator and were going down to the garage. The other three were on standby as we walked out. 

 

"Let's go. Williams and Ziva with me. McGee and DiNozzo take the truck." 

 

 We pulled up to the scene, Ducky having beat us already. I walked over to the officer in charge and flashed him my badge. I could just barely make out the form of the most recent victim. She was in civilian clothes, which was new.

 

"Agents Gibbs, David, and our intern Williams. What've we got?"

 

"The young man waiting over by the wall talking to your other agents is the one who found your vic and called it in. Her name is Harley Vincent, she's a Petty Officer First Class. She's in pretty bad shape."

 

"Anything else you can tell me?"

 

"I had my officers simply hold the scene once we found out she was Navy. We've been waiting for you." I nodded as he moved away before turning to the girls. "Sketch and shoot the scene. Be thorough." 

 

"Ah Jethro, there you are. I was wondering when you would be joining us."

 

"What do we know, Duck?"

 

"TOD was approximately an hour ago. There's bruising around her thighs and it looks as if her arm has been dislocated."

 

"Similar wounds to our first three. Does she have the strange markings?"

 

"Yes. Whoever murdered these young women they're beginning to move more quickly, Gibbs. We need to catch them - yesterday."

 

"I know, Duck." I stood there and sighed, but felt eyes on me. I began to look around, the team was busy with the scene, which could only mean that it was a bystander. My eyes dart towards the crowd at the end of the alley. There was a man with sunglasses on and dressed impeccably well. Something about him made my gut clench, but when I blinked he was gone.

 

"Everything okay, Jethro?"

 

"He was here. Pack her up as fast as you can and get her out of here." I moved over to Ziva, but I couldn't find Olivia. 

 

"Where's Olivia?" Ziva spun around and glanced around the scene.

 

"She was supposed to simply go to the truck for another pencil. What's wrong?"

 

"Something's not right. Go check on her." She nodded and hurried away as I made my way over to DiNozzo and McGee.

 

"Witness who found the victim said he comes down this alley way as a shortcut to get to work. He called 911 when he stumbled upon Petty Officer Vincent. "

 

"Did he see anything strange?"

 

"No, the alley was quiet and empty." I nodded and was about to tell them to pack up when Ziva's breathless voice came up behind me.

 

"Gibbs, Olivia is gone. Her bag was inside the truck and the doors had been left wide open." 

 

"What? Did you see anyone?"

 

"No and I asked bystanders that were lingering and none of them saw anything. I don't think she would just leave, Gibbs." 

 

It felt as if I had been punched in the gut and my head was reeling. Ziva was right about one thing. There was no way that Olivia would simply leave, not without telling anyone or asking for permission. I pulled my phone out and began to dial. 

 

"The three of you take the truck back."

 

"Gibbs, what about Olivia?"

 

"We find her. Get everything packed up and meet me back at NCIS." I walked swiftly to the car, my phone to my ear telling Vance what had happened. I peeled out of the alley way.

 

* * *

  **\- Olivia's POV -**

I groaned softly as I opened my eyes. I tried to sit up, but I couldn't move my arms to prop myself up. There were zip ties wrapped and linking my hands together behind my back. My eyes widened as I became more alert. I was lying in the back of a van and we were moving rather fast. My ankles were bound and my vision was still blurry around the edges. My heart was loud in my ears and my breathing quickened. I needed to get myself calm or else this was going to get worse than it could be. 

 

"Is that the sounds of you waking up back there?" I froze in place and my breathing stopped. That voice. I knew that voice. Tears sprung to my eyes and I bit down on my tongue to keep myself from crying. There was no way this could be happening.

 

* * *

 

**\- Gibbs' POV -**

"Why weren't you watching her?" Vance's face was pale as he paced behind his desk.

 

"She was processing the scene with Ziva. She went to the truck for a new pencil or something." There was a knock on his office door before McGee walked in.

 

"Did you get a location?"

 

"No, her phone pinged, but when we went to check it out it had been dumped in the garbage a block or so from the latest crime scene, boss." McGee looked apologetic as he gave me the news, which meant that he probably knew more than he let on. Vance took his phone off the hook and began dialing before looking up at us.

 

"Let me know if you find anything. I have to call Jackie and tell her what's happened." When he sat back down I took that as our cue to leave. McGee and I made our way back down to the bull pen where I found Abby waiting.

 

"Gibbs that vase that you wanted me to look at is completely devoid of prints other than Olivia's and our mailroom workers. I've got nothing. You don't think that our killer took her do you?" I placed my hands on Abby's shoulders gently and shushed her.

 

"I don't know. It's a possibility, but it's also a possibility that her past is coming back. I need you to go concentrate on anything we get from our latest body. Leave Olivia to us." I kissed her cheek and sent her on her way before turning to the others.

 

"Sitrep." I stood in the middle of the bullpen as the three of them gathered around me.

 

"Petty Officer Vincent was just like our other victims. Quiet and hardworking. She was actually about to be promoted in the next few weeks. I did find an old sexual harassment case filed under Lieutenant Keane, but like all the others it was dismissed, no investigation." I nodded and turned from Ziva to Tony.

 

"As far as I can tell the only connection she had with our first three victims is sharing a former commanding officer. There was never any interaction between them."

 

"Gibbs, there's also the fact that we had Keane in custody when this victim was murdered." Ziva looked hesitant as she spoke. I cursed internally. With everything going on that thought had slipped my mind entirely. I nodded. I didn't have many doubts that Keane was part of this, but now we had limited time before we had to let him go.

 

"You and Tony go see if you can pull anything from him." The two of them nodded and walked away quickly. McGee looked at me expectant. I pushed him to his desk, making him sit down in his chair.

 

"McGee, I want you to look into Matthew Haney again. There has to be something there. Something isn't right."

 

"On it."

 

"Look into his fiancée as well. Go deep. Whatever it takes."

 

"Boss?" McGee looked at me nervously as I moved to turn away.

 

" _Whatever_ it takes, Tim." 

 

"Yes, boss." He began doing his thing on his keyboard as I moved to the elevator to go down to see Abby. Something about this entire situation wasn't sitting right with me. Abby was standing at her desk watching the door when I walked into the room.

 

"Gibbs, there you are! What took you so long?" She was frowning as I came closer.

 

"What've ya got, Abs?" She turned and began typing on her keyboard furiously.

 

"Traffic and security cam footage. I found footage of whoever took Olivia, but the van has no plates and the guy never shows his face. You know what that means, right?"

 

"He knew where the cameras were."

 

"Gibbs, if that's true then that means this was premeditated. Whoever this is has to have ties to the murder if not murders. I checked both ends of the alleyway. The cameras on the far end were no longer working. They wanted us to see them take Olivia." I stood there and watch Olivia struggle before being tossed in the van on a loop. I couldn't keep my eyes off the screen. Abby's hand found my shoulder and stayed there gently.

 

"We'll get her back, Gibbs. I know we will." I nodded and began to walk out of the room.

 

"Go over that in every angle you can, Abby. Try to find anything that could help us. Get the make and model of the van to McGee so he can get a BOLO out."

 

I made my way up to interrogation to see if Ziva and Tony found anything out from Keane, but I found them standing in the hallway. This didn't look good. Ziva looked at me and shook her head as I approached.

 

"He's still not saying anything, Gibbs, but he hasn't asked for a lawyer yet. I think he's trying to out wait our twenty-four hours. Something tells me that he knows what has happened." 

 

"Well, our time is almost up. Abby found camera footage from when Olivia was taken. Whoever took her wanted us to know that they did it. Ziva, go check in with McGee and see if he's found anything. Help him if you can. DiNozzo with me. We're going to have a chat with Lieutenant Keane." I turned and flung the door open aggressively.

 

"Ah, agent Gibbs, I was wondering when you would be coming to see me. Am I free to go yet?" Keane began to stand, but I pushed him back down.

 

"Sit down. Who are you working with?"

 

"What do you mean?" Keane quirked an eyebrow and messed with the bandages on his hand. 

 

"I'm sure you know what I mean. You're a smart man, Lieutenant." 

 

"Agent Gibbs, I have told you and your other agents I have had nothing to do with your victims." I glanced at Tony as he stood in the corner of the room and leaned back in my chair. I needed to approach this differently. My eyes roamed over Keane, landing on his bandaged hand and Olivia's words from Ducky came back to me. 

 

"What happened to your hand?"

 

"Bar fight." Keane pulled his hand off the table and into his lap. I nodded and folded my arms over my chest, smiling softly.

 

"Did you at least win?" That made Keane chuckle and lean forward a little bit.

 

"The other guy didn't even know what hit him." I chuckled with him, leaning forward with him. I tried to get him to relax a little more.

 

"Mind if I take a look?" Keane froze for a moment before he shrugged. He began unwrapping the bandages revealing his hand to me. I whistled low at the sight of all the bruising and dried blood covering his knuckles. I offered him the trash can to toss the bandages in.

 

"DiNozzo, why don't you grab a first aid kit and the Lieutenant here some clean bandages." Tony nodded and walked out of the room.

 

"That looks pretty bad."

 

"It looks worse than it is. I didn't have much time to clean it up when your agents picked me up." I hummed softly and stared at him as he began inspecting his hand. It wasn't very much longer before Tony came back through the door a first aid kit in one hand and an evidence bag in the other. He threw down the kit before picking the trash can up. Keane had a hand on the kit, but kept his eyes on Tony as he put the bandages in the evidence bag. 

 

"What are you doing?" Keane's eyes narrowed dangerously and I stood.

 

"Our latest victim was beaten pretty heavily. Our ME told us that our killer most likely injured himself. Go ahead and fix your hand up. We'll be back to arrest you once we find a DNA match." DiNozzo and I walked out of the room with Keane yelling behind us.

 

"Take that down to Abby and have her run it."

 

"On it, boss."

* * *

 

**\- Olivia's POV -**

 

"Why did you do this?"

 

"I'm doing it for you, Olivia, of course. This is for your safety." I groaned as I tried to get my hands free from their binding. My head was still pounding as I looked around the room. It was a nice place. Lavish and most certainly expensive. The worst feeling though was that this place was familiar. I leaned my head back before turning back to my captor.

 

"Where am I?" There was a chuckle from behind me and I stiffened.

 

"Hello, Livvy." My eyes waited for him to be in front of me and it didn't take him very long. Liam's eyes roved over my body making me squirm.

 

"Liam. How did I know that you were behind this?" His tongue clicked behind his teeth as he stalked closer to me. I tried to keep myself from flinching as his face grew closer to mine. His fingers gripped my chin just a little too tightly.

 

"Because we belong together, baby doll and I told you that I would get you back." Liam smirked and pat my cheek softly before backing away. I clenched my teeth as I watched him carefully.

 

"Luckily for me, you had a friend who happened to live in D.C., who also owed me a favor. Mr. Haney, I have some meetings that I must attend. Do stay and keep our guest company. I'm sure you have much to discuss." Liam's hand stroked the top of my head gently before he made his way out of the room. I recognized his bodyguard waiting for him in the hallway as the door closed. He looked sad as his eyes met mine. 

 

"Are you thirsty, Liv?" My attention was grabbed again when Matty walked over to the shelf containing several bottles of liquor. There was a pitcher of water waiting there as well, but I shook my head as he offered me the glass.

 

"What is wrong with you, Matty? Why are you doing this?" I kept my voice as calm as I possibly could, but I felt a heavy weight in my gut.

 

"I care about you, Liv. Plus, I owe him. I have to do this. Liam is what's best for you now. He can take care of you." Matty nodded his head as he paced in front of me. I could tell there was something extremely wrong with him. I narrowed my eyes.

 

"What do you owe him, Matty?"

* * *

 

**\- Gibbs' POV -**

"Boss, Matthew Haney's fiancée is sick. Terminal cancer. She isn't expected to live for more than a few more months. The two of them had been going into debt with all of her medical bills, but around two months ago the debt was taken care of."

 

"Who's paying for it?"

 

"That's the thing boss. I've been trying to trace it every way I know how, but I'm coming up blank. It keeps pinging back and forth between offshore accounts."

 

"Find him and bring him in. I want to talk to him." Ziva rounds on me next.

 

"Police found the van that took Olivia abandoned in an alleyway about ten to fifteen blocks from our last crime scene. I've had them send it our way and it should be in the garage soon for Abby to go over."

 

"She'll need help with that."

 

"I'll head down then." Before Ziva could move from her desk there was the clinking of metal coming towards them.

 

"Gibbs, you really need to start answering your phone when I call." Abby thrust a file in my hands. She stood in front of me her hands clasped in front of her as she bounced.

 

"Well, what is it, Abby?"

 

"Those bandages that you got off of Lieutenant Keane. I found something." She smirked as she stood there proudly. I quirked a brow and waited for her to continue.

 

"You really take the fun out of guessing games, Gibbs." I rolled my eyes at her antics. I loved the girl, but sometimes she didn't have the best timing. This was growing time sensitive.

 

"Any other day, Abs, but we're looking for one of our own remember?"

 

"Right, sorry. There was a DNA match from our latest victim on the bandages. It was so small that I almost didn't catch it, but luckily for us I run these tests at least twice. Lieutenant Keane hasn't cleaned his hand, which I mean, gross. Especially since not all of the blood on his hands was his." I took a quick glance at the file before I kissed her cheek swiftly. 

 

"Good work. DiNozzo with me." I begin to walk away when McGee stops me.

 

"Boss, Haney's phone has been shut off and he hasn't been at work since he showed up here to visit Olivia. I called his fiancée's hospital room and she said she hasn't seen him either." I frowned and ran a hand over my face.

 

"Ziva, change of plans, take McGee and go to Haney's house. Try to see if he's there. Abby the van that took Olivia should be down in the garage soon. Look it over thoroughly." The three of them rushed to do as they were told and I turned to head back to interrogation with DiNozzo in tow. As we walked through the door, Keane's mouth was open.

 

"I want to make a deal." I glanced at Tony as we both took a seat.

 

"Ah, it sounds like you know you're in trouble. Doesn't it sound like he knows he's in trouble, boss?" I leaned back in my chair with the file laid in front of me as I nodded.

 

"It sure does, DiNozzo. Why do you think that is?"

 

"Oh I don't know. It could be the incriminating evidence we found on his bloody bandages that he so willingly gave us." Tony grabbed the file and cracked it open before sliding it across the table. Keane's eyes roved over it, and his face grew pale. 

 

"There it is." I leaned forward in my chair, waiting.

 

"Okay, okay. I did it, but I was hired to do it."

 

"Hired?" Keane nodded and ran his hands over his face. He knew he was caught.

 

"Yeah, me and another guy."

 

"By who?" Keane went quiet and stared at the table. It was a few more minutes before I slammed my hand down on the table.

 

"Who hired you?!" My voice boomed making Keane jump and shake his head.

 

"Some influential dude. He had contacted me because he knew I was in trouble with the higher ups for all of the dismissed sexual harassment cases. He said he could make it all go away, but he got to pick who we went after, I simply had to provide the files. Me and the other guy would switch off on the kills."

 

"I need a name." I was losing my patience the more he spoke. Olivia was still missing and who knows how long we had to find her.

 

"I can't give you one! Even if I wanted to. He and I communicated through middle men. The other guy would probably know more. He was in this for a different reason. I'm not exactly sure what he was getting out of it." Tony tossed down a pen and notepad as I stood up.

 

"Write down everything you know. Every detail. Then we'll talk about a deal." I move to leave the room, but stop at the door.

 

"Do you know the other guy's name? Have you ever met him?"

 

"Once or twice. I think his name started with an 'M'." I glanced at Tony and pulled my phone out of my pocket ready to call McGee when it began ringing.

 

"Yeah, McGee, what did you find?"

 

 _"He hasn't been here in a while, boss, but I'm going to send Tony some pictures. I think you're going to want to see what we found."_ Tony's phone pinged as I came to stand next to him. 

 

_"Did you get them?"_

 

"Yeah, McGee we got 'em. You and Ziva document everything and then get out of there. We don't need him to come back and see us there."

 

 _"On it."_ I hung up the phone and inspected the pictures on Tony's screen.

 

"That's a lot of pictures of Olivia, Gibbs. Something tells me little Matty isn't as harmless as we were led to believe." I glanced at Keane, who was still hunched over writing. 

 

"Stay with him and get his statement. I'm going to go talk to Vance."

 

I made my way up to Vance's office quickly and ignored the usual request to knock. Who I found sitting in the chair opposite Vance was not something I had been expecting. Liam MacHurin stared at me as I froze in the doorway. Vance cleared his throat garnering my attention.

 

"Can I help you agent Gibbs?" He looked at me pointedly and I cleared my throat. I glanced between him and MacHurin quickly.

 

"Forgive my intrusion, Director, but I was needing to speak with you about our most recent case. It's rather urgent." Vance glanced at MacHurin and quirked a brow, but nodded his head.

 

"Liam, I hope you don't mind, but perhaps we should continue this another time."

 

"Not at all, Director Vance. After all you're the one who called me here. However, only if you're certain as I'm a very busy man, Director. I'm not sure when I'll be able to reschedule this meeting." He held his hand out for Vance to shake and the latter grimaced. 

 

"I'm sure we'll work something out. My secretary, Cynthia, can show you out of the building." Once the door was closed behind MacHurin, I moved to hit the lockdown button. 

 

"What was he doing here, Leon?"

 

"He was here to discuss extending an invitation out to me to join him at his latest summit that will be going over new security systems that his company has been working on. It seems to have been a personal invitation. I can't tell if it was a veiled threat or an open one." Vance sat down behind his desk and ran a hand over his face. 

 

"We believe Olivia's friend Matthew Haney is the one who took her. Keane has confessed to most of the murders. Said he was hired by a very influential man, him and another, but he couldn't give us names for either."

 

"What is your gut telling you?" I leaned against the back of the chair Liam had been in.

 

"It's telling me that Haney is our other suspect. Keane said he wasn't sure what the other guy was getting out of the kills, but with all of the victims resembling Olivia even in the slightest then it has to be him."

 

"And about the man who hired both of them? We have no evidence that it's MacHurin. He's kept his tracks clean." 

 

"If we get Haney, maybe we can get him to talk." Vance nodded and rubbed his chin.

 

"We'll have to tread lightly and quickly. If there is a connection, chances are MacHurin already has Olivia stashed somewhere for himself."

 

"That thought makes my gut uneasy, Leon."

 

"I know. We'll get her back. Is there anything else?" I shook my head and moved for the door.

 

"I'll let you know."

* * *

 

**\- Olivia's POV -**

 

"Matty, if you let me go I can help you. We can get you the help that you need." I watched as Matty paced in front of me while also trying to work my hands free. If I could just get the knot loosened then maybe I could take him down. I really didn't want to have to do that.

 

"Don't you understand, Liv? I thought you of all people would understand. No one else can help me. Mr. MacHurin is the  _only_ one who can pay the medical bills. He has kept us out of debt."

 

"Liam MacHurin only cares about himself, Matty. Now that he has me, what's stopping him from having you killed? Because I have no doubts that he will. He uses people until they are no longer of use to him."

 

"Stop talking!" Matty's voice roared through the room and I flinched lightly. It didn't take long for him to kneel in front of me. His hands were shaking as they tried to smooth my hair out of my face.

 

"I'm s - sorry, Liv. I didn't mean to to yell. I shouldn't have done that. I know how much you hate it." I swallowed hard around the lump that was rising in my throat. He was close enough for me to head butt, however, that would do me no good since I was still bound to the chair. I tried not to move too much as I fiddled with the knot once more.

 

"I'm okay, Matty. It's not your fault." He nodded quickly and stood, moving back away from me. He chuckled and it sounded cold. This wasn't the same Matty that I had always known. 

 

"You know, when I visited you at work I was worried. I have done some pretty questionable things lately, Liv. I've hurt people." I froze for a split second at his admission. 

 

"What do you mean?"

 

"All of those girls. They all looked like you, but when I had them they just weren't you and and I would get angry, Liv. I would get so  _angry_." The lump in my throat had grown bigger. He couldn't possibly be admitting to the murders. Matty chewed on his fingernails nervously.

 

"What did you do, Matthew?" I kept my voice calm, but I couldn't keep the coldness from creeping in. His hand dropped from his mouth and he was kneeling in front of me again, his head buried in my lap.

 

"No, no, no, don't call me that. I hate when you call me that. You're upset with me." He began sobbing, his tears gathering a wet spot on my thigh. I grimaced, but then the knot began to loosen.

 

"What did you do?" I spoke quietly, unwavering, "Matthew, did you kill those girls?" His tears continued to flow as my hands finally began to slip free. I kept them behind my back, trying to keep the same amount of tension in my body. I looked around me for anything that may be of use to me. I decided to change tactics.

 

"Matty?" His head popped up at the sweetness of my voice.

 

"Yes?" I swallowed noisily and tried to clear my throat. His watery eyes gazed at my neck, open far too wide. 

 

"Could you get me a glass of water, please?" I pleaded with him, making my own eyes wide. He nodded urgently and moved far too fast, making me lean away from him. As he turned his back I tried to move as fast as I could. I dropped the rope from my wrists and grabbed the heaviest thing near me.  _I'm sorry, Matty._ I heaved the object and swung it just hard enough to hopefully knock him out. Matty fell to the floor and I dropped my weapon, lunging for the door. Luckily, it wasn't locked. 

 

I made it into the hallway and checked both directions. I decided to go right, hauling ass, and came to another hallway with a few doors on either side. Running a hand through my hair, I groaned. I had no idea where to go. I stood there for a little bit longer before I heard voices coming from the way I had run from. I could hear Liam's voice, he was always so loud. Sighing, I took a left and opened a door that led, thankfully, to a stairwell. I knew I had to act fast to find my way out of this place. It wouldn't take them very long to find out that I had escaped - if they didn't already know, which they most likely did. 

 

I took the stairs two at a time, stumbling occasionally. Halfway down an alarm began to sound loudly, making me cover my ears. I kept moving, but I was naïve to even begin to think about security cameras seeing me. I moved farther and farther down. It seemed like I was heading for a basement, but I didn't want to risk going out onto another floor. However, I knew that if I didn't then they would simply cut me off when I made it to the basement. Sighing, I went through the next door I came across. I stumbled into a new hallway, but the alarm was a little less loud. I picked a direction and began running. I was beginning to get a stitch in my side, but I knew that I had to keep going. 

 

I turned the corner and skidded to a stop. There was a woman in the middle of the hallway, but it looked as if she hadn't noticed me. She looked familiar to me. I could hear her humming as she closed up the room she had been working in and began walking in my direction. I slipped through the nearest door to hide. Listening closely, I prayed she wouldn't try to come in here to clean. When she passed I let out a sigh of relief and sagged against the door.

 

"You do realize there's no way out of this building, Olivia." My head snapped up to find the bodyguard that had been with Liam earlier. He's been with Liam for a long time, even when I had been dating Liam.

 

"Grant." I breathed a slight sigh of relief. Grant was leaning against the windowsill across the room. His arms were folded over his chest and I closed a bit of the gap between us.

 

"I'm sorry, Olivia. Liam isn't going to let you go."

 

"Can't you help me? You got me out last time." He looked at his shoes and sighed. I walked closer and he held a hand up.

 

"For me to do it properly, it would've taken time. Now that you've tried to Houdini your way out, Liam isn't going to be quiet about this. Or gentle." I nodded, but froze and looked around.

 

"There are cameras everywhere in this building. How do I know he can't see us talking right now?" I narrowed my eyes and backed away from him. I was stupid to think I could trust him this time. 

 

"I took care of the cameras in here or did you forget that I'm the head of his security team?" Grant quirked a brow and moved away from the window. I bit my lip and watched him carefully as he moved to the bookshelf.

 

"Was Matty okay?"

 

"He was when I saw him. I can't say now. Liam was . . . enraged when he opened the door and found him out cold with you gone." There was a lump forming in my throat as I nodded.

 

"So, what do I do now? Do you think you can help get out of here or not?" I crossed my arms over my chest and glanced around the room again.

 

"Rosita knows you're here by the way. She asked about you."

 

"I thought she was going to leave when I got out the first time." Grant nodded, and pulled a small deposit box out of a spot on the bookshelf.

 

"She was, but Liam offered her a raise that she couldn't refuse. Especially after her daughter got locked up again leaving her to care for her grandson." I ran a hand over my face. Grant pulled a couple stacks of cash from the box before putting it back in it's place.

 

"We've already spent too long here. We need to move you. Come on, through here." Grant gripped me by the elbow and pulled me to a spot in the wall. Before it popped open, I knew it would. I had hidden inside the walls many times at a few of Liam's other estates. Grant shoved me inside and held a finger to his lips before sliding the door back into place. The main door to the room burst open, banging against the wall.

 

"Did you find her?"

 

"I'm sorry, boss. I've looked in all the places she would've normally hid." Something made another loud bang and then something was smashed on the floor. I held my breath, waiting.

 

"I want her  _found,_ Grant. Now!" 

 

"I'll find her, sir." 

 

"I know you will because if you don't then things will not end well for you. I allowed your indiscretions to slide the first time due to the fact that you are the best of the best. However, if you cross me one more time then I'll have your head." Liam's voice was cold. Colder than I had heard in a long time, and it made my stomach clench. Guilt filled me. Grant could die because of me. There was no doubt in my mind about that. I heard footsteps walk out of the room and then the panel in the wall slid open.

 

"Here. Follow these blueprints, they will lead you to an outer wall that leads to the gardens. I will be waiting for you there, but right now I have to take care of some things."

 

"What do I do if you don't make it?" Grant grimaced and shook his head.

 

"You can't think like that."

 

"Grant, what do I do?" He glanced behind himself. He must've heard something I hadn't.

 

"Then you run. This estate is in the upper part of D.C. it wouldn't take you very long to make it to a police station. Find a phone. Call your people. Okay?" I nodded and took the blue prints. He took a flash light from his pocket followed by one of the stacks of cash. 

 

"Will you find a way to let me know that you're safe?" Grant glanced behind himself again and nodded vehemently.

 

"Yes, now go. Stay in the walls and stay quiet." He slid the panel back into place dousing me in darkness. I allowed myself a deep breath and a sigh before I began moving. I had to keep moving.

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is my first NCIS fic and it's completely unbetaed so please don't kill me for any misspellings! I do read over my own work, but occasionally I miss things that should have been fixed. I hope you guys enjoy it regardless. I will try to post as often as I can, but I do have a lot of other works that I'm working on right now, not to mention trying to juggle my work and social life. Please be patient! Let me know of any criticisms as well, comments are always appreciated!


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